A Comparable Nose: Part 1 of the 'Comparable' series
by TheLoneRebels 2.0
Summary: *NOW COMPLETE* Severus overhears a VERY fascinating conversation between two of his students, which starts the ball rolling on an afternoon of carnal delight and the start of a long-term relationship that he had only ever dreamed of coming to pass. Not for fanatic Harry or Ron fans. A story inspired by 'Size Matters' by Laurielove. Severus/Hermione with a bit of Ginny.
1. Setting the Stage

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**My sincere thanks to xantishax277 for allowing me to use their drool worthy pic of Snape for a cover image.**

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**A/N: The following AU short story was inspired by 'Size Matters' by Laurielove; a must read for those who love hilarious humour with their lemonade. I doubt my interpretation of a similar scenario is anywhere near as funny, considering it's coming from Severus' pov as opposed to the girls', but I have made an effort to keep it light. And very lemony, of course. This story features Severus/Hermione with some Ginny thrown in for fun, and they will be very naughty indeed. :P Hermione is a few months short of 20 (or actually is, if you consider time-turner use) and Ginny is a month shy of 18 (but as we all know, 17 is considered the age of majority in the Wizarding world, so everyone is a consenting adult. :D) Severus is 39 but can pass for at least 10 years younger because he's such a powerful wizard. The Severus in my head is still played by Alan Rickman, but a much younger version. (He was about 55 years old when he made the first movie.) This brilliant actor was bloody gorgeous as a young man (seriously, google his pics if you don't believe me) and was still worth a look or twenty in his later years. (He will be forever missed and adored.) Alternatively, Adrien Brody or Adam Driver also make good thirties looking Snapes if you'd like to picture either of them instead. :D **

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** A Comparable Nose **

**Part 1 of the 'Comparable' series**

**Setting the Stage:**

_July 23, 1999. _

Severus Snape couldn't wait for the class to end any more than the restless students trapped with him in the chilly dungeon room could.

It was the last Potions class of the school year for him. The last Potions class ever for the 7th and 8th years. They'd already taken their final exams a few days ago and now everyone was just going through the motions.

Many of the teachers at Hogwarts had simply let the teenagers sit and chat through their final few days of classes, but Severus was never one to let an opportunity to force even a modicum of further knowledge into their dunderheaded brains slip past. And as such, his final class of the year was now halfheartedly scratching out an essay on the pros and cons of common, everyday type potions that could usually be found in any Wizarding household.

To make it worth their time, he was awarding House points to the top five essays. And considering the state of the nearly tied Hourglasses in the entrance hall, a few points one way or another could make all the difference when the winner was announced at tonight's Leaving feast. He wasn't expecting much from them, but at least the illusion of making an effort was being maintained.

Of course, the two most likely to achieve a satisfactory result were already finished and now had their autumn coloured heads bent close together as they whispered in hushed tones to each other, talking about their outfits for the evening.

Severus wasn't impressed.

Not about the finished work; that was almost worth a sigh of relief that some students, at least, were capable of focusing for an hour straight. But about the whispering in his class. He generally couldn't stand the disrespect it showed, or the fact that he could almost always hear what they were saying.

His extremely sensitive and large nose wasn't the only overdeveloped tool of the senses that he possessed.

"Miss Granger. Miss Weasley," he snapped from his position behind his desk to the two girls in the front row only a few feet away and off to the left from him. Their eyes snapped upwards guiltily and he repressed the urge to smirk, maintaining his stern frown out of sheer practice. "If you have time to talk, you have time to write an additional nine inches of essay for me."

He flicked his pitch black wand at the rolled up parchment on their desks and the necessary length of paper was added to the end of each essay.

The brunette and the redhead narrowed their eyes at him in displeasure but were wise enough not to complain out loud after suffering through seven years of his strict teaching. He focused on the wild haired one and could easily make out the thought of, _Bastard, _in her firewhisky eyes.

_Feisty witch. _He cocked an eyebrow at her and she shuttered her thoughts behind her thick eyelashes. Severus glanced at the smooth haired ginger; her eyes were already back down.

"Yes, Professor Snape," they mumbled in near synchronicity, picking up their quills once again and bending their heads to their task. There was still half an hour left in class, so Severus didn't feel even remotely bad about making them write a wee bit more.

Draco tittered from the other side of the room and Severus shot him a look which shut the pale blond boy up instantly. _Merlin, will that boy ever grow up?_ Leaving the Malfoy brat to his sulk, Severus swept his hard gaze over the rest of the class of young adults, reinforcing his mastery of them, daring someone else to step out of line. All eyes shot down to their parchments in a flash of self preservation.

Severus allowed his smirk to emerge as he turned his focus back to marking the stack of scrolls from the final sixth year class from earlier that morning. (They'd been assigned a similar essay on why buying common household potions from cheap sources was never a good idea.) All things considered, life was fairly bearable right now. Some would even say his life was better than all right. He wouldn't go quite that far, but there were definitely a few points in the positive column.

He wasn't dead like he had thought he would be at this point, two years ago.

He was no longer saddled with the abominable task of being Headmaster and having to deal with reams of paperwork and letters from annoying parents. (That was McGonagall's headache now. Hehe.)

His health was better than it had been in years and he was feeling practically twenty again with the amount of energy he seemed to have now that he was getting a proper amount of stress free sleep every night.

And best of all, there was some prime eye candy sitting only feet from him, smelling heavenly, and looking oh so fuckable with her near permanent case of 'I just got out of bed after a night of glorious shagging' hair and that puffy lower lip that she nibbled on unconsciously while writing.

The brilliant Ms. Hermione Granger was the first student to ever equal himself in terms of intelligence and as far as he was concerned, she was easily the best looking witch to walk through the halls of Hogwarts in his entire tenure at the school. He had every intention of mustering up his courage and looking her up after she'd settled into her new life and asking her out for a butterbeer.

Assuming she didn't mind going out with a wizard nineteen years her senior, that is. And a former teacher. But he knew she was currently unattached, and from catching more than a few of her thoughts over the last year, he knew she was uninspired by the boys her age or younger and their perpetual infantile ways, so he was hoping a more mature minded man would be more to her taste. And with any luck, she would take into consideration the fact that he would age very slowly, considering how powerful of a wizard he was.

He also knew, from her vibrant and orderly mind, that they would probably enjoy talking to each other about countless subjects once released from the 'student and teacher' relationship they were currently constrained to.

The only thing he didn't know, because he'd never caught her thinking of him that way, was whether or not she thought he was attractive enough to catch her interest.

"Hey, Ginny."

"What?"

And then his sensitive ears picked up on another hushed conversation from the front row that nearly had him whipping his head up in displeasure.

"Do you think it's true, what they say about noses and certain other body parts?"

But after hearing Hermione's question, he kept his head down and pretended to concentrate on his marking, dying of curiosity to see where this was going.

"Uhhhh. No idea. Why?"

"I was listing the pros to a decongestant potion which made me think of noses, and then I glanced up and his nose was just there, on display between the sides of his hair, and then I remembered something I heard Lavender say about noses being comparable to penises."

The Weasley girl nearly choked on her shock at Hermione's words. "Wh…What?"

Severus somehow restrained the urge to do some of his own choking.

"I mean, look at it. It's rather magnificently large, don't you think? And if that comparison is true, that means that something else he possesses should also be magnificently large."

_I like to think so, at least, _Severus thought rather proudly, feeling a twitch in his trousers as if to second the opinion. _And Merlin, did she just call my godawful nose magnificent? That has got to be a positive sign._

"Uh, yeah. I guess. His nose is clearly larger than most. Aquiline, I think they call it, when it curves out like that."

Severus could feel their gazes on him now, assessing. He shifted uncomfortably in his hard wooden chair, trying to ignore the fact that the other subject in question inside his trousers also thought this conversation to be incredibly fascinating, but failing miserably as things became considerably less roomy. To help them with their assessment, he 'absently' brushed his long hair back behind his ear and continued to keep his eyes trained on the parchment in front of him.

"But it's proportionate to his face, for sure," Hermione whispered emphatically. "I mean, look at those prominent cheekbones."

"Yeah," Ginny sighed out quietly.

"Those beautiful, cutting edge cheekbones," Hermione sighed out just as quietly.

_Holy shite! _Severus nearly fell off his chair, said cheekbones blooming in heat. He covered it by pretending to search for something in a drawer.

Taking deep breaths to semi control his bodily reactions to Hermione's declaration, Severus stood abruptly, thankful for his draping robes that hid so many sins, and proceeded to walk about the classroom in a show of checking on everyone's progress.

There was still twenty-five minutes left in class and he wasn't sure if he was going to make it with his sanity intact.

The girls studiously focused on their essays when Severus had abruptly stood up, but as he walked towards the back of the room, walking up and down the rows, raising a disapproving eyebrow at the odd essay that only half filled the required length of parchment, they started whispering again. And, oh Merlin, he could still hear them. It was like his sensitive hearing and his innate ability as a Legilimens had connected and conspired to torture him further.

"I heard that big feet were also an indicator of size elsewhere," the youngest Weasley progeny whispered with a rather wicked undertone, apparently getting into the spirit of things. "Does Snape have big feet?"

"I don't know. I've never really looked at his feet. I keep getting distracted by the top half," Hermione said with a hint of a giggle. "He's so dreamy, don't you think?"

_Merlin help me. _Severus had to stop and pretend to read Longbottom's essay over his shoulder, making the boy's hand tremble on his quill, causing funny inkblots. The shocked professor hardly noticed. _How long has she been looking at me like that?_

"I guess he does have pretty eyes, when he's not glaring death threats at us," Ginny whispered back.

_I do NOT glare death threats, _Severus sneered as he turned away from Longbottom and continued on. (Neville nearly whimpered as he assumed the sneer was for his work.) _I glare death WARNINGS! And honestly, it's been at least a year since I've glared at Hermione. I don't even know if I could anymore. _

"I know, right?! Like pools of the deepest obsidian with brilliant galaxies hidden within. And those eyelashes… Merlin."

That had Ginny giggling quietly. "Guys do seem to get the better eyelashes and they don't even know it. His hair's nicer than I remember, too, actually. Is it just me or is it cleaner and fluffier?"

"Oh, it's definitely better kept now," Hermione said happily. "I guess he has more time to take care of it properly now that he's not… ummmm."

"Yeah."

"And I like how he's let it grow even longer. Makes him look like classic royalty."

_Thank you. It WAS the look I was going for, even if Lucius had a good laugh when he came back from his extended vacation on the continent. _

"I would have said more like a snobby pure-blood, but yours sounds better. I didn't know you fancied Snape so much, Mione. You've been keeping secrets."

_Has she ever. I would have liked to have found this out much sooner. A whole school year's worth of clandestine meetings, wasted. _

"I didn't know, either, not till recently anyways."

_All right, no clandestine meetings. Pity. If you don't count my wanking fantasies, that is. _

And then two new voices were added to the whisperings, overlapping with the girls' conversation and annoying the avidly listening professor.

"What are the girls whispering about?"

"I don't know. Can't hear properly. Cast a charm."

Severus turned in time to catch the flash of a wand being used somewhat discreetly under the desk. He chuckled inwardly. _Oh, you are not going to like what you're hearing, boys, I can guarantee that._

Ginny continued, oblivious to the now eavesdropping young wizards behind her. "What changed your mind? What brought him up from 'Worst Teacher Ever' to hellooooo 'Professor Bow Chicka Bow Wow'?"

Severus snorted loudly enough to make three students nearby jump. He also missed Hermione's reaction because of it. _Professor Bow Chicka Bow Wow? Where do Muggles come up with this rubbish? And the new Muggle Studies professor is clearly in need of a talking to in regards to suitable learning material. I'll have to remember to mention it to Minerva. _

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't think it was a sudden thing. I know my respect for him went up by leaps and bounds after the war. And I know that I've actually been looking forward to taking his classes, but there was no light bulb moment of discovery. What I do know is that the faceless man in my fantasies is no longer faceless, and every time I see him, I notice something new about him that appeals to me."

"Wow. Just wow."

_You said it, Miss Weasley. _Severus was pretty much flabbergasted and it was all he could do to keep up his fluid stroll around the classroom. He wanted to tell all of the students to get the fuck out so he could pounce on the brilliant witch who had somehow managed to see beyond their past and come to the realization that a properly mature wizard was right in front of her nose. He was more than willing to be snatched up in her tiny hands at the earliest opportunity.

But he practiced his much overused restraint and continued on as if nothing was amiss, aiming back towards the front of the classroom in the slowest possible stroll along the outside edge. He allowed his gaze to coast over the subjects of his fascination and was almost surprised to see them still apparently working diligently on their essays, quills moving across parchment and everything. _Those witches really are the most clever creatures. _Severus would almost have thought that he'd been imagining the entire hushed conversation except for the utter stillness of the boys sitting at the table behind them, mouths agape unattractively, and quills poised above parchment, probably leaving massive ink blots.

Apparently Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were not enthused with the topic of discussion by the girls that had dumped them within a month of returning for an unprecedented eighth year. (A truly chaotic and miserable war torn seventh year would do that.) _They asked for it; casting an eavesdropping charm in my class. Must suck, finding out the hard way that their 'greasy old git' of a teacher could inspire such talk from the girls. I almost feel sorry for them. _

_NOT._

Severus found himself filled with a sense of immense satisfaction to see the two troublemakers put in their place yet again. (The first times being the days the girls in question had come to their senses and realized that they were dating boys not even remotely worthy of them.) Unfortunately, they were somehow all still friends. (Apparently surviving a war makes unbreakable bonds. His stronger than ever friendship with Lucius came to mind as a good example.)

Severus was tempted to call them out for not working, but thought better of it as the girls' conversation resumed, not wanting to miss a word.

"Soooooo, what else have you found 'appealing' about His Royal Darkness over there?" Ginny asked.

_Yes, please tell me._

Hermione paused in her studied writing and turned her head ever so slightly to glance at him as he approached the front of the classroom. Severus just managed to turn his gaze away in time to not be caught staring. "Well, there's his shoulders. They look strong and broad under his robes."

Ginny flicked her eyes over him as well, her lips curling up in appreciation. "Yes. Very yummy. What else?"

To give them more time to assess, he stopped at one of the many shelving units that lined his classroom walls and tidied the contents that didn't really need it. This took the girls out of his line of sight, except for the edge of his peripheral, but it was probably for the best anyway.

"His hands. So long and elegant. He could be a pianist with those fingers."

_Why, thank you. _

"Hmmm. I believe hands are also supposed to be comparable to penis sizes. Or was it thumbs?"

"I don't think it matters," Hermione giggled. "And look, his feet are definitely large as well. Those have to be size thirteen shoes, at least."

She sounded quite pleased with her discovery, and Severus found himself throbbing even further to life under his trousers, although he hadn't thought it was possible to get harder than he already was.

"Oh definitely a solid thirteen," Ginny confirmed. "I've seen more than my share of male footwear at home, so I would know. And for the record, there's not a single pair of thirteens at the Burrow. Charlie's twelves are as close as they get."

Severus couldn't help himself: he glanced over at the male Weasley to see his reaction to this rather telling statement as he moved on to the next bookcase that didn't need tidying. The boy was turning rather red to match his hair. It was bloody brilliant.

And then Hermione tipped it over into the best thing he'd ever heard.

"Well, I know Ron wears an eleven, and his 'equipment' is certainly of a matching size; just average. He also wasn't particularly inspiring in the stamina department."

The 'average' boy in question was practically purple now, and Potter had a hand clenched on his arm to keep Weasley in his chair, shaking his head frantically at him, afraid of an explosion that would cost them valuable House points. _Well done, Mr. Potter. _

"Merlin, I think that was TMI, Mione."

_Not to me._

"I'm sure you'll get over it," Hermione said cheekily, quill still scratching away at her parchment as if her lips weren't moving.

Severus could practically hear Ginny's eyes rolling in her head. He definitely heard her huff indignantly. "Whatever. Back to more pleasant conversation; anything else on your list of Snape attributes?"

"His voice."

_My voice?_

"His voice?"

"Yes. I've decided it's the sexiest butter smooth and deep voice I've ever heard. Remember when I made that muggle recording of his lecture last month?"

_You did WHAT?_

"Yeah. It was very helpful for revision purposes."

"Obviously. Anyway, I was playing it back before the NEWTs, cramming in last minute studying, and fell asleep while it was playing. To make a long story short, I woke up coming. Apparently Snape can literally talk me into orgasm."

_Good Merlin, woman, you're almost doing the same to me!_

"Bloody hell!"

Miss Weasley wasn't the only one who said that quite a bit louder than a whisper. Her brother had also spit out the words as he popped off his chair despite Potter's attempts at restraining him.

As the rest of the class turned their focus on the latest entertainment, Hermione spun around in her seat and immediately flushed red with mortification as she realized that she'd been overheard by her the worst possible person; her ex.

"Ron! I… Um…," she spluttered in the face of the boy's hurt and incredulous expression as he all but crawled over his desk.

It didn't take Severus but a moment to decide to come to the rescue.

He spun around and glared one of his infamous death warnings at what appeared to be the offending person in his class, striding towards him with deliberate steps that sent his black robe billowing behind him. "Mr. Weasley! Is there something the matter that requires you to disturb the class so?"

Weasley's eyes tore from Hermione's red face and focused on Severus. He gulped and quickly sat back down, shaking his head as quickly as humanly possible. "No. No, Sir. Just something I… remembered." His eyes flashed at Hermione with a deep pain that the boy would just have to get over, for Severus had no intention of ever letting her go once he had her in his arms. (And there was no longer any question that she would be there as soon as possible; not with the way she'd been talking about him.)

Severus gave the ginger boy his sternest frown as he stopped beside Hermione's desk, surreptitiously sucking in another breath of her tempting scent of vanilla shampoo and clean woman.

Clean woman with a hint of underlying desire that was fading as her embarrassment took over her emotions.

_Merlin again. Must find a way to get her to a bed as soon as possible!_

"Do try and control your inclination towards any further outbursts for the next ten minutes, Mr. Weasley. I'm sure even you can manage that?"

Severus received a look of hate that slid right off him, having seen it so often over the years. "Yes, Sir."

"Good." He spun on his heel and aimed towards his desk again. As he walked away he let the words, "Five points from Gryffindor," float on the air behind him.

"Fucking git," Weasley mumbled.

Severus paused and looked back over his shoulder. "Five more, Mr. Weasley. I trust you're finished 'expressing yourself' now?"

Sullen silence was his only answer.

IF you didn't count the stream of unimaginative expletives shouting at him from within the boy's blue eyes.

Severus turned away again, severing the momentary and unwanted connection. Sometimes his 'gift' was more a curse.

He sat down at his desk and bored his wayward erection into settling down by whipping through the marking of a handful more essays. Most were just glanced over before quickly deciding they would not make the top five, so weren't worth his time, and as such, they were magically vanished with a mouthed word.

At the same time, he was devising a plan that he was fairly sure would bring the delightful Miss Granger into his bedroom by the end of the lunch hour. (He happened to know that she had no further classes to attend and was quite free to indulge in some mutual pleasure.) (Severus also happened to have the afternoon off, by some lucky twist of fate.)

At two minutes to the hour, Severus stood from his desk and casually walked to the storage room at the back of the class. He left the door open so as not to arouse suspicion, and made for the back wall of the very large closet filled with shelves full of potions ingredients and vials of finished potions. Pulling out his wand, he turned the shelving unit on the back wall into a swinging doorway, vanishing the bricks of the real wall as necessary.

There was now a door directly into his bedroom.

His suite of rooms were usually accessed through a similar hidden door in his office just down the hall, but Severus was quite happy to make a new door for this occasion. (He'd return the wall to normal later.)

After lighting a dozen large candles with a flick of his wand to ensure his bedroom was brighter than the closet, he left the 'secret' door open a crack, allowing a miniscule line of light to strike a side wall of the closet from his bedroom. Then he grabbed a tray full of blue potion filled vials destined for the hospital wing and returned to stand by his desk just in time for the bell to ring, signifying the end of the period.

Students practically leapt out of their chairs in relief and rushed to his desk to hand in their essays. Severus gave some of them quick nods of acknowledgement, if they bothered to meet to his eyes. The rest were ignored. He kept his peripheral focus on Hermione and Ginny, who were thankfully lingering slightly as they shouldered their bookbags, probably to avoid talking to the boys who were still shooting them confused and distressed looks as they walked out of the room all but backwards. He hadn't heard a peep from the girls since they realized that Potter and Weasley were listening to them, and he didn't blame them; that had to have been disconcerting.

As they took the necessary steps up to his desk, he addressed the young woman who had haunted him for longer than he'd care to admit. "Miss Granger, I was wondering if you would do me a favour?"

She looked up at him, startled, as she placed her rolled up essay on his desk on top of the pile. Her doe brown eyes met his and he immediately connected to her mind. _Anything, anywhere, anytime, Professor, Sir. _

_I am so taking you up on that, witch._

"Of course, Professor Snape. What can I help you with?" she said after recovering her decorum, glancing at Ginny, who was waiting patiently and was just as curious as Hermione about said favour.

He gestured at the tray of vials. "Can you take these up to Madame Pomfrey for me? She requested an extra batch of anti-hangover potion in preparation for tomorrow morning's inevitable influx of complaining overindulgers. That will give me time to mark these essays and award the House points before lunch time."

"Sure, Professor. Not a problem." She smiled at him, eyes shining warmly and neat teeth peeping out from her naturally dark pink lips. In her mind, she was imagining herself running her finger down his chest over the buttons of his frock coat as she whispered the same thought as before in his ear.

Mini Sev approved wholeheartedly.

"You could also bring back any empty vials she has and then put the tray back in the storage room." _And hopefully see the open invitation I left you._

"Of course."

"Thank you, Miss Granger," he said, feeling his lips curl up in a rarely used genuine smile.

Her eyes flicked to his mouth in surprise and then shot back to his, her approval of his action making his chest feel tight with emotion. _Merlin, he's gorgeous when he smiles. Probably best he doesn't do so very often or every female in the school would be swooning._

_Really? _Severus thought perhaps Hermione was exaggerating, but as she turned to pick up the tray of vials from the desk, he looked over at Ginny; she was looking at him speculatively as well and unconsciously rubbing her bottom lip with the side of a finger. He caught her eye and her thoughts leapt into this mind. _Oh Merlin, now Hermione's got me thinking of Snape as a sexy beast. And I want some Professor Bow Chicka Bow Wow for myself. Sweet Circe, she was right about his eyes; they are like endless galaxies. And he's so tall and dark. I bet he knows how to make a girl scream. Harry certainly didn't, that's for sure. _

Severus blinked once, slowly, as he processed that. Hermione was the only female he wanted to wake up to every morning for the rest of his life, but he was certainly flattered and maybe even a little more aroused at the idea that another beautiful young woman desired him. It certainly wouldn't be a hardship to indulge her a bit if the opportunity ever arose and Hermione wasn't opposed to having a ménage a trois.

He smiled slightly wider at the ginger haired girl and let his expression reflect a fraction of the desire he was feeling, just to see what she'd do.

She nearly gasped.

_Definitely ripe for the plucking as well. The boys in this school are apparent morons if they can't figure out how to satisfy and keep a witch as hungry as that one. _

Severus turned his focus back to his true desire, seeing her looking between him and Ginny with a faint frown creasing her brows. _Now that just won't do, she has nothing to be jealous about. _As he caught her eyes again, he let her see his genuine feelings for her, bravely wearing his heart in his eyes. And then, making his voice as deep and buttery as possible (since she seemed to love it so much), he said softly, "Thank you again, Hermione, for your help. It has been a pleasure having you in my classroom and I will miss your dedication to your studies that is so rare in this world."

Clutching the tray of vials to her chest, Hermione shuddered in a breath, her eyes firmly fixed on his again. _Merlin, he said my name. That beautiful voice said my name. And he complimented me for the first time ever. This might be the best thing to happen to me all year. _"I'll miss you too, Professor Snape. I mean… I'll miss learning from you," she quickly corrected. But Severus knew she actually meant the first one and it made his blood sing with pleasure and triumph.

He so badly wanted to just sweep her up into his arms and carry her through the newly made door to his bedroom.

But he refrained.

For now.

"Perhaps, after you're settled in your new job at the Ministry, private lessons could be arranged. If you're interested in furthering your potions knowledge beyond what is allowed to be taught in school, that is." He tried very hard to keep the hope out of his tone and state it matter of factly, but he was fairly certain he failed at least a little if the answering hope that bloomed in her gaze was anything to go by.

"I… I would like that, I think," she said so softly it was nearly a whisper.

"Good." He nodded his chin towards the open door of the classroom. "You'd best go. I probably won't be here when you return, but I'll leave the door unlocked for you."

"All right," she said rather reluctantly, not wanting to leave him any more than he wanted her to. "I'll see you later then, at the feast?"

"Yes." _Much sooner than that, my sweet little witch, if you take my bait._

She gave him one last look of open longing before turning to Ginny, who was watching them with fascinated eyes at the relationship blooming right before her like some sort of mythical fairy tale. Hermione smiled at the girl who'd become her closest friend after all of the awkward breakups with the boys. "You want to come with me, Gin?"

The redhead beamed. "Sure. Who doesn't fancy yet another trip up a million stairs?"

They left the room, giggling, Ginny whispering her astonishment of his use of Hermione's first name. She had a right to, since he NEVER used students' first names to their faces, and rarely even thought of them as anything but by their surnames. (Draco being the only exception, since he was almost family.) Severus watched them leave from beside his desk where his feet seemed to be glued to the floor. He didn't budge, barely even breathed, until the last echo of their footsteps and soft laughter was long gone. And then he moved in a flurry to the desk and sat to speed read through the essays so he'd have his entire afternoon free to devote to the witch when she came back. (He automatically read Hermione's first, correctly assuming that it would set the standard for the rest, like usual.)

He had such plans for the brilliant little Gryffindor witch. Plans he'd been imagining for years. (If asked, he'd say three, but there was no real need to be specific, was there?) And if she brought Ginny back with her, well, that threesome may occur sooner than he'd expected, but what the hell.

Severus was horny enough to satisfy a dozen witches and still be 'up' for more.


	2. Putting on a Show

**Putting on a Show:**

Five minutes after the girls left, and with Severus halfway through his second reading of Hermione's admittedly brilliant essay that would do well in any Wizarding magazine, Draco rushed into the classroom looking rather frantic. _For Merlin's sake! _Severus raised an impatient brow at his Godson, reluctantly putting the parchment aside for the moment. "What is it this time, Draco?"

"You have to help me, Uncle Sev!"

Severus suppressed the urge to snort at this oft heard plea from the young man. He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of his chin. He did not indicate for Draco to sit. (He was in a rather bit of a hurry after all.) "As I already said; what is it this time, Draco?"

* * *

Eight more minutes later, the pale haired nuisance was sent on his way and Severus was back to his reading. (Not that he actually disliked the boy, because he was actually quite fond of the amusing runt he had spent a considerable amount of time babysitting in years past, but Severus wasn't in the mood right now to pamper him, obviously.)

Twenty minutes after that, all of the marking was done and the House points had been awarded to the best of the two sets of essays. In the case of the oldest class, Hermione, of course, had won the twenty-five points for Gryffindor, followed by Longbottom (surprisingly), Ginny, Draco, and a Ravenclaw boy receiving the five points for fifth place.

He then rushed up to the Great Hall for a bite of lunch, cutting through the teachers' lounge and arriving through a side door, intending to inhale it as fast as possible without appearing to do so, so he wouldn't miss the return of Hermione to deliver the tray of empty vials. But as he sat down in his usual chair at the Head table, he glanced over the sea of chattering young people and spotted a familiar head of riotous auburn curls. He immediately settled down to methodically eat his meal in a more normal fashion while surreptitiously watching the Gryffindor table. Severus brushed off Flitwick's attempt at engaging him in conversation with a noncommittal grunt, which wasn't an unusual thing for him by any means. The diminutive professor gave up, also as usual, and turned to talk to their Headmistress on his other side.

Hermione had the tray of empty vials on the table beside her, which he was relieved to see, because it meant that she still intended to deliver them soon. He supposed stopping for lunch in the middle of a task wasn't that terrible of a sin, considering it was a favour and he hadn't indicated it was a time sensitive thing. She also appeared to have just arrived, her plate nearly full, which he wasn't surprised over, considering how far it was to the hospital wing from the dungeons and how Madame Pomfrey liked to talk. (He'd been counting on that little fact to give him time to do his marking.)

Ginny was beside Hermione, of course, and they appeared to be having a rather uncomfortable but heated discussion with Potter and Weasley, who were sitting across from them at the table. Not a lot of food was being consumed by any of them, not even the redheaded one who usually shoveled in food like coal to a steam engine. Severus wished he could hear what they were saying, but there was just too much ambient noise from the hundreds of voices to hone in on just four. As is, he was forced to endure the assault on his senses by the nearly overwhelming smells and sounds. (He'd discovered a long time ago that Occluding during such situations helped to dull things a bit, even if it did turn off his emotions as well, and had gotten in the habit of putting up his shields a moment before entering the Great Hall.)

Despite not being able to hear the Gryffindors, he could very well imagine what they were saying based on the words he was able to lipread and his knowledge of their speaking habits. In his mind, their conversation went something like this as he watched them from under his lashes:

"What the fuck are you doing, fantasizing over Snape?" This was from Weasley, who was currently gesturing madly with his fork, sending meatloaf flying onto an unfortunate first year girl at the Hufflepuff table, which landed in her hair, prompting a shriek and a jump.

The Gryffindors didn't notice, too wrapped up in their own drama.

"It's none of your business who I fantasize over, Ronald Weasley!" Hermione responded with, leaning over the table and pointing her empty fork in his face.

"Of course it is!" Weasley leaned back towards her, furious looking.

"Not in a million years and even if you were the last male on the planet!" Hermione looked glorious in her fury, and Severus was almost glad his emotions were under wraps or he'd be having another reaction inside his trousers to hide. "You're my friend, Ron, not my keeper. And certainly not my boyfriend or my father. And even if you were, you still could not dictate what goes on in my mind, thank you very much!"

Weasley was now sputtering, mouth flapping as he tried and failed to come up with a good retort.

Severus gave up Occluding and endured the increased noise and scents so he could properly enjoy this, burgeoning erection and all. He almost felt like a bowl of popcorn would be appropriate. Instead, he made do with forking in his meatloaf and vegetables in a dignified manner.

Potter leaned forward now, eyes darting between Hermione and Ginny. "Ron does have a point, Mione. Your discussion in class was highly inappropriate, even ignoring who the subject of it was."

Hermione snarled at the messy haired boy. "Piss off, Harry. You weren't supposed to be hearing it anyway."

"Yeah, you should know better than to eavesdrop on private conversations," Ginny added, frowning fiercely at her ex.

Draco chose this moment to deliberately walk by their table after finishing his lunch. He paused by the youngest Weasley (on purpose) and leered at the girl as he addressed her. "Problems in paradise, Weaslette? You know you could always abandon these losers and…"

He didn't get to finish as the quartet turned as a unit and all but yelled, "Piss off, Malfoy!" in impressive synchronicity, loud enough that even Minerva heard them. (And her hearing was no better than average.) She frowned at the group, but apparently decided to let the language infraction slide, considering it was the last day and they were her precious Gryffindors.

Severus simultaneously mentally rolled his eyes at McGonagall's leniency and face palmed at Draco's incredible ineptitude. _That is not what I had in mind when I said be nicer to her, you dunderhead._ He watched the young man sneer with great dignity at the Gryffindors and then slink out of the hall to much laughter and felt a modicum of sympathy for the boy. School hadn't been the most welcoming place for Draco since the war, not even by his fellow Slytherins, which had made his snotty attitude even worse, if that was even possible. The sad thing was that all the boy wanted was to be accepted again. (And maybe land a rather improbable girlfriend before they left Hogwarts for the last time tomorrow morning.)

Their united front against a common enemy seemed to have brought the Gryffindors' argument to a halt, and they were now eating in angry silence, the girls studiously not looking at the boys, and the boys glancing up at the girls in hopeless confusion.

Since the show was apparently over, Severus put up his Occlumency shields again and concentrated on finishing his lunch.

He didn't quite make it to the end of his plate before Hermione suddenly stood, only finished half of hers. She must have decided that she was done or the atmosphere was affecting her appetite. Ginny stood with her, probably not wanting to be left behind with the moping duo. As Hermione shouldered her bag and picked up the tray of vials, Severus also pushed his plate away and stood. He mumbled an excuse about getting back to his marking (which was already done, but his fellow professors didn't know that) and made a quick exit back through the teachers' lounge, gratefully dropping his shields that cut him off from even himself.

Anticipation came roaring back, prompting his blood to hum through his veins again. _Hermione, Hermione, Hermione, _it seemed to say as it travelled through him, more and more stopping in the middle and forgetting to move on as he swept rapidly back down to his domain like a great black warrior bat on a mission.

He made it to his office door just in time to hear the girls descending the stairs, their words preceding them.

"…just can't believe them. They're being such…" Ginny's frustrated sounding voice trailed off.

"Boys?" Hermione supplied helpfully.

He paused just inside his office with the door closed to the casual eye and waited for them to pass, avidly listening.

"Worse! Toddlers fighting over the same toy!"

_Accurate. _

The girls tittered softly at that.

"And what was up with Malfoy?" Ginny asked. "Did he actually call me Princess? Is this some new form of insult, because if that's the case, I think I like Weaslette better."

_Hunh, I guess he actually did take my advice to try being nicer. Too bad it backfired._

"Who knows what's going on in Draco's head? But he's just as much of a prat as he's always been. Fortunately, we'll hardly ever see him again after tomorrow."

"Thank Merlin," Ginny huffed out as they walked by his door.

_I think Draco might have better luck winning over a witch who doesn't know him. Perhaps he should take a trip to Europe to satisfy Lucious' most recent demand of his son. Or maybe I should have a talk with my old friend about realisitic expectations. Poor Draco really doesn't need more pressure hanging over his head just yet. He's only just nineteen, for Merlin's sake. Lucius could give him a little more time to grow up. _

Knowing he had to move, he closed and locked the door with a wave of his hand and a muttered word before moving to the back of his office and waving a bookcase out of his way. He slid through the opening and into his sitting room, closing the secret door behind him as well.

Striding through the comfortable space filled with more books than the average human would ever read in three lifetimes, and a cushy couch and chair set in front of the fireplace, he moved into his bedroom. Looking at the newly made doorway into his classroom storage closet, he smiled in satisfaction to see the small line of darkness at the edge; his bait was still as he had left it.

He moved closer to the new doorway and listened.

The girls were already in the classroom.

And they were talking again. And this time, not quite in whispers, so it was easy for him to hear them.

"I can't believe we're in Snape's classroom without him or anyone else being here."

Hermione giggled as her steps approached the closet. "I know. It feels kind of naughty, doesn't it?"

"Definitely."

"I think I like being naughty."

_You can be as naughty as you like with me, beautiful witch._

He heard the gentle sound of the tray being placed on a shelf.

_See the light. See the light._

"In fact, I'd love to be naughty with Professor Tall, Dark, and Dreamy."

_Merlin, you're killing me, witch. Just turn around and see the light!_

"Ditto," Ginny sighed out.

Hermione laughed, thankfully still lingering in the closet at least. "I've converted you, have I?"

"It didn't take much, I have to admit. The boys prancing around this school like they're Merlin's gift to women just aren't doing it for me."

"You're telling… Hey, do you see that?"

_Finally! _

"See what?"

"Look there, a tiny strip of light."

"Oh. Yes. I do see it."

"I swear I've never seen that before and I've been in this closet hundreds of times over the years for supplies."

Severus could hear their tentative footsteps moving closer to the back wall. He quickly backed up nearly to the door to the sitting room.

"Bloody hell, Gin! It's a bedroom!"

"Let me see! Shove over a bit. You're right. It is!"

"Do you think it's…"

"Snape's bedroom?"

"Logic would assume as much."

There was a few moments of silence as Severus waited with baited breath to see what they would do next. _Please don't leave. Please don't leave._

"Look at that fourposter!"

"It's huge!"

"Just imagine what naughty things could go on in such a bed," Hermione said, making Severus' heart nearly stop and his cock jump.

"Oh, I'm imagining all right."

"Do you think, if we stay here and be super quiet that Snape would give us a bit of a show?" the girl of his dreams mused.

_That could be arranged. What did you have in mind?_

"You mean like a strip show?"

"Yeah. I guess. I mean, he has to finish his lunch any minute now, and maybe we'll get lucky and Hagrid will have spilt his goblet into Snape's lap."

_No such luck today, girls, but that has happened on a few occasions over the years, much to my displeasure. _

"Wouldn't that be just perfect? Then we could find out if noses, hands, and feet really are comparable to penises."

_I don't know how accurate that really is, to be honest. Never been inclined towards making comparisons of other men's cocks, and I can't see myself ever starting._

"I think we're just being silly now," Hermione said after a few seconds of silence, her voice stark with the realization of reality. "Snape is never going to just wander into his room and start stripping for us. We should just go."

Ginny sighed audibly. "Yeah. I guess."

Severus panicked. _Shit! Have to do something! I really didn't think this through very well. _

Gulping in horror, he glanced around quickly and then settled as a plan formed.

Using his hand, he gently slammed the door separating his bedroom from his sitting room.

"What was that?"

"He's here!"

"Oh, Merlin!"

"Quick!"

"Shhhhhh!"

"Right."

_Gotcha. _A smirk flickered over his face before he schooled his expression into one of utter seriousness. Then he calmly walked towards his wardrobe on the other side of the room, shrugging out of his voluminous robe and hanging it up on a hook. Then his hands went to the top button of his wool frock coat, just to see what kind of reaction that would get. This would be the time for them to chicken out if they were going to.

"Circe help me, he's undoing BUTTONS!" Hermione breathed reverently, barely audible even to his ears.

Normally, Severus would have undone all of his buttons magically, because there was a bloody lot of them, but since the girls seemed quite enthralled with the idea, and hadn't budged from their hiding spot where he imagined them with a single eye each awkwardly glued to the crack in the door, he continued undoing his buttons one at a time.

Buttons done, he tugged his sleeves over his wrists one at a time (ignoring the buttons on the sleeves, because really, he didn't have ALL day) and then shrugged out of his coat and hung it up carefully. And then he started on the row of buttons on his waistcoat.

"Oh, Merlin. More buttons." This was accompanied by some rather heavier breathing.

_I had no idea buttons were such a turn on, _he thought incredulously even as he inwardly chuckled at the sheer ridiculousness of what he was doing; stripping for the girls like some sort of indecent stage show.

Waistcoat hung up, he tugged the black neckcloth from around his throat with a flourish. And then he started on the row of buttons on his white dress shirt, slowly revealing his chest one button at a time. He wasn't exactly a muscle bound god, but Severus liked to think the lean and defined muscles he did sport were adequate enough. It was certainly an improvement over the ribby, half starved look he'd worn last year, to say the least.

He undid his onyx cufflinks and placed them in a drawer in the wardrobe. The wand sheath attached to his forearm was removed and put in the same drawer, his wand tossed with a casual flick onto the bed behind him, and then he tugged his shirttails out of his trousers. And now his shirt was off as well, revealing broad shoulders, strong but lean arms and the aforementioned chest and abdominals.

And the numerous scars that covered his back and was scattered over his front, and along his arms, including the pinkish grey smear of what used to be his Dark Mark.

There was a pair of hushed gasps from the closet, making him grimace. He could have glamoured the scars away, but Severus honestly didn't feel like hiding anything about himself anymore. Especially with the witch he hoped to call his own. If she couldn't handle him as he was now, then better to find out before she broke his heart.

Out of habit, he murmured a freshening charm over his shirt before hanging it up with the three other identical shirts already hanging in the wardrobe. He closed his eyes for a moment, listening carefully, hand poised on the hangar. But there was no sound of movement, and he could still hear them breathing.

_Thank Circe, they hadn't been frightened off yet. _

Perhaps he should have been feeling some guilt for engaging in such an act with two of his students - something he'd never even contemplated before – but he'd taught them their last class which technically no longer made them his students. And they were both of age. And one was HERMIONE, who, as far as he was concerned, was exempt from all the rules of what he SHOULD be doing.

Taking a deep breath, his hands moved to his belt. He heard the girls inhale as he did so, signifying they were just as invested in this little show as he was.

The belt was slid through the loops of his black trousers with a swish and hung up.

They hadn't exhaled yet.

His hands moved to the zipper of his fly, just grazing the bulge that eagerly wanted freedom despite his thoughts of feeling inadequate or repugnant; his cock was one hundred percent in approval of this little game, no question. But then he continued downwards with his reach, lifting a foot to the ledge of the wardrobe floor at the same time to unlace a shiny black, ankle height, dragon hide boot.

The girls breathed again.

"Ginny, do you see what I see?"

"If you mean the finest arse ever placed on a male, then yes, I see what you see."

_Really? _Severus almost stood up to crane his neck over his shoulder to check out what they were talking about, but somehow stopped at the last millisecond and turned the slight movement into the pulling off of his boot and then his sock.

He switched feet and the other boot and sock was disposed of in seconds.

Then he stood tall again and touched his fingertips to his fly again.

The girls stopped breathing again.

So did he for that matter, as he carefully pushed the zipper past his overly enthusiastic tumescence.

Deciding to get the final part over with, he whisked his trousers and undershorts off in a swift move, then tossed them on an empty hook in the closet to be dealt with properly later. He honestly couldn't care less about them at the moment, because he was giving the girls a full on side view of his profile at the moment and they had most definitely gasped again. But this time in a good way.

"Oh. My. God," Hermione breathed out.

"I didn't know they came that large," Ginny seconded.

Severus had never felt prouder of something so ridiculous in his life. It was just a cock, after all; stupid and nearly impossible to keep disciplined when in the presence of a certain curly haired witch. Maybe his was somewhat larger than average, but certainly he wouldn't break any records. But the girls seemed to think he was big, and that just made him stand taller and straighter than ever before.

But then he realized, as he was standing there in front of his wardrobe, that he hadn't thought further than this moment. _What the hell do I do now? _

More than anything, he wanted to walk over to the new door and 'catch' the girls in the act of peeping so he could get on with the lovemaking. But the driving need in his balls was getting almost to the point of desperate and he wasn't sure how much good he'd be to said girls.

He really, really needed to come to take the edge off at least.

_Fuck it._

Severus slammed the wardrobe door shut and spun, leaning his back against it and bracing his legs. He then took himself in hand, closing his eyes in grateful relief at the friction of his grip.

"Is he…?"

_I am._

"He is."

"Merlin."

_Seconded._

Hand moving steadily from his now weeping head and down his length and then back again in a rhythm every male learns in their early years, coating himself in his own lubrication, Severus stroked himself in what would normally be in gratuitous pleasure. But right now, it felt more like a life or death necessity. The mere thought that Hermione was watching him was enough to inspire him along into setting a new wanking record for speed. Grunting helplessly after only a minute or two, he cupped and tugged his aching balls with his other hand, and with one final hard tug on his hard-as-steel cock, he was shooting what felt like a pint's worth of seed across his room and onto the floor in what had to be another record for distance.

"Hermioneeeeee," he groaned out loud against his will, much like he always did in this situation for the past few years.

The girls were essentially panting now, much like himself.

Time felt frozen.

And then…

"Did he say Hermione?" Ginny asked in a hushed tone.

"Uhhhhhhhh, maybe?"

_Oh shit._

"Maybe I misheard."

"Maybe."

They didn't sound convinced.

_Now what?_

"What are you going to do about it?"

_Good question._

"I don't know, Gin. This is all rather weird."

"I think you should go in there and pounce on him."

_Ooooo. I like that idea. Please do. Take the decision out of my hands._

"I don't know if I can. I'm just not that brave."

_Yes you are! _Severus was inspired to move. Not caring that he was naked, since they'd already seen it all, he strode for the new closet door, waving a hand at his mess as he passed to vanish it. (He rarely actually used his wand anymore, his magic stronger than ever, especially now that he wasn't fighting for his life on a near daily basis.)

"Of course you are, Mione! You're the bravest person I know! Look at everything you've done and survived and fought; confronting Snape is nothing compared to that."

After ascertaining that they weren't still pressed up against the shelving unit door by the sound of Ginny's voice, he pushed it open. "I completely agree, Miss Weasley."

The girls spun from where they were leaning up against shelves on opposite sides of the closet, arms crossed over their chests as they decided on Hermione's life choices, and gawked at him. Their eyes automatically flicked down towards his already reawakening cock (that had never really deflated) before moving back up to his face but not quite meeting his eyes, both of them blushing fiercely.

"Professor Snape!" they said in alarmed synchronicity.

"We were… just… returning the…" Hermione gestured helplessly at the tray of vials on the shelf beside her.

"I know," he smirked. "And taking in a show."

The blushing intensified, if that was even possible. It was bloody adorable.

"Well… Yes," Hermione admitted.

"Did you like the show?"

Hermione gulped, her melted chocolate eyes meeting his properly for the first time. _Oh, Merlin, did I ever. You have no idea how wet I am. _She pulled her eyes away from his, flicking them to Ginny in a 'help me' look, before returning to his. "Ye… yes?"

_Thank Merlin. And yes, I do know how wet you are, my sweet witch. I can smell you. Both of you._

"Would you like to see more? Experience more?" he offered with way more confidence than he felt.

Hermione looked to Ginny again, receiving an encouraging and enthusiastic nod from the other girl. (It would never be said that the youngest Weasley was shy.) The young woman Severus really wanted sucked in a breath for courage and then returned her eyes to his. "Yes, I would."

His chest nearly deflated in relief even as his cock jumped in joy. _Stupid thing. _He had to suck in more air before he could say, "Good."

He gestured towards his bed. "Please, come in."

Hermione gave him a shaky smile as she sidled past his naked form, eyes darting down once again to the appendage that was quite determined to make its presence known. She stopped only two steps into the room and looked back, not really sure where to go from there.

"I'll just… go," Ginny said, sidling in the other direction, and sounding a little dejected.

"The offer was open to both of you," Severus said quickly. Ginny turned back fully towards him, beaming in relief. He smiled back quickly and then turned to Hermione. "That is, if you're okay with that, Hermione?"

Somehow, the girls had already figured out that Hermione was his main focus. _Perhaps my calling out her name as I came was a dead giveaway? _

She nibbled on her lower lip as she looked between him and Ginny, before shrugging. "Why not? "

Ginny rushed past him and flung her arms around the other girl. "Thank you, Mione! I've never had a threesome before. This is beyond exciting, you have no idea."

Hermione hugged her friend back, stroking a hand over her long red hair fondly before letting her go. "Oh, I think I do."

Severus walked in and closed the closet door behind him. He stepped up to the girls and looked down at them. "To make things perfectly clear for everyone, I am breaking school policy only because I fancy you, Hermione, beyond anything."

Hermione gasped, her eyes turning almost liquid as she looked up at him. _I fancy you too,_ those beautiful eyes conveyed to him clearly. He smiled at her softly in approval.

Then he turned his gaze to the other girl. "But I am not adverse to adding the lovely Miss Weasley to our play for today and maybe on occasion in the future if that's what you two want?"

_I'm all for that, _Ginny thought eagerly, her own doe eyes shining at him, but didn't get a chance to vocalize it.

"I think we should wait and see how this goes before we decide on anything else," Hermione said firmly.

Severus nodded in agreement.

Ginny sighed, but nodded as well. "Okay."

There passed a few moments of awkward silence as they all looked at each other with sliding gazes and tentative smiles.

Hermione broke the silence, staring at his chest with apparent fascination. "Sooooo, now what?"

Severus gathered up his courage and touched a finger to her chin, lifting her eyes up to his. He lowered his head slowly, keeping his gaze on hers until the last moment, seeing only acceptance and anticipation. He touched his lips to hers in a gentle kiss that sent a shock of magical delight through his veins like he'd never felt before. By the way she gasped into his mouth, he assumed she felt the same. _Amazing. Truly amazing. I knew she was perfect for me. _

Raising his head, Severus opened his eyes and gazed into hers as they fluttered open. For once, there wasn't a single thought in Hermione's usually very busy mind other than a rather dazed, _Wow_, and Severus smiled in triumph. He brushed his fingers over the petal soft skin of her cheek. "Now, My Own, we adjourn to the bed."

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry! 2 chapters of teasing you is just cruel isn't it? Lol. But I'm sure you'll survive until I write up the next one. (Which will be a giant smut fest, promise.) But I really should write a chapter or two of my other WIPs first, assuming I can talk my muse into concentrating on them, that is. This little story really is at the front of my mind right now. :D **

**Oh, and I have a proper Draco/Ginny story brewing in my mind that will be a companion to this one, if anyone is interested. Let me know before I put any more thought it into it other than as a small side plot for this story. **


	3. The Opening Act

**A/N: And now… I think it's time we added Hermione's voice to this fic, don't you? :D**

* * *

**The Opening Act:**

_How in Merlin's name did this happen?_

_Is my life spiraling out of control?_

_Do I really care?_

_Maybe this is a dream._

_A really, really good dream. _

All of these thoughts spun through Hermione's mind as Professor Snape (_Severus? Dare I think of him as Severus?) _led her to the huge fourposter bed by the hand like he was escorting royalty and there was nothing abnormal about the fact that his ENTIRE mouthwatering body was on display.

He guided her to climb onto the bed covered in a sumptuous Slytherin green quilt before leaving her with a lingering kiss to the top of her hand and a heated look from his deep black eyes that made her catch her breath yet again for what had to be the hundredth time in the last half hour. _Dream or not, insanity or not, I am going to enjoy this moment to the absolute fullest._

_And gawk at that incredibly fine ass as much as I can get away with without being too blatant about it, _she added with a secret grin as he turned away from her and held out his hand to Ginny, who was chewing on her lip and looking undecided all of a sudden.

"Come, Miss Weasley… Ginny… The invitation was for both of you, unless you've changed your mind already?"

_God, that voice! I just want him to speak to me forever. _Hermione shifted restlessly on her knees on the bed, hoping to alleviate some of the ache in her core. (It didn't work.)

Ginny gnawed on her lower lip for another moment. "Well, no, not really. It's just that… You two seem so… into each other. I don't want to feel like an intruder on your moment."

_She has a point. Snape… Severus?... and I do seem to be connecting… or something._ She looked at the man in question, who turned his head back over his shoulder with a raised brow, clearly leaving the decision up to her again, and nearly got lost in his eyes, emphasizing her thought. _ But I don't know if I have the courage to be here all by myself with him. He's gorgeous and sexy and appears to be in a shockingly good mood for once in his life, but he's still intimidating as hell. _Decided, Hermione forced herself to stop gazing at the mesmerizing man and caught Ginny's eye. "Stay, please. I want you here." _I don't think I can do this by myself, _she conveyed as best as she could with her eyes, not quite willing to say it aloud in front of Snape and admit to being a bit chicken.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when Ginny's expression cleared and she smiled. "All right."

Ginny stepped forward and took the offered hand of their just turned ex professor, blushing softly as she met his eyes. "Such a gentleman."

He smirked as he raised Ginny's hand to his mouth and kissed the top, letting his mouth linger for a moment that was slightly shorter than the one he'd given Hermione, but not rudely so. "When I want to be," he murmured in a husky reply, obsidian eyes twinkling as he glanced between the two girls. And then he helped Ginny up onto the bed as well.

_Merlin. Hot. So hot. _Hermione was feeling a sudden urge to fan herself and toss off all of her clothes all at once.

Ginny glanced at Hermione as she was settling into a kneel as well, her eyes wide, and mouthed 'Wow.'

_Yep._

They watched with wide eyes, and spinning around as necessary, as the man Hermione had always assumed to be rather shy or ashamed of his appearance because of how he kept himself so covered up all the time lazily crawled onto the bed as well and then reclined on top of the covers, head on a pillow, and then laced his fingers together behind his head. His smirk was still firmly in place as he drawled, "As I would never presume in regards to what you are comfortable with doing, how about you two take over the show for a bit? I am at your disposal to do with as you wish."

The girls exchanged excited glances. _Christmas! Or maybe even better than Christmas! I get to do whatever I want to Professor Snape! _Hermione swept her gaze over his long, lean, but oh so deliciously muscled body. _Merlin, where to start? It all looks good. Even his feet are elegant. _

Ginny was the first to move, tossing off her robe and flinging it to the floor. "I don't know 'bout you, Mione, but I'm roasting."

Hermione copied her. "Agreed. Someone finally turned up the heat in the dungeons," she said with a teasing flick of her eyes at the naked man in the bed.

Severus' mouth twitched further upwards, but he said nothing.

Hermione didn't consciously realize it, but he was practicing being as unintimidating as possible. Unconsciously, though, Severus was sure she had, because she'd relaxed instantly when he'd done nothing more than lie down on the bed and invite them to take the lead.

It was possibly the first time in his adult life that he'd ever actually practiced being the opposite of intimidating, though. He had to be intimidating to his students to make them respect him, his classroom, and the volatile ingredients they worked with. He'd had to be intimidating with his fellow teachers when he'd first starting teaching at only twenty-one years of age so they took him seriously, and he'd generally kept up the persona, now out of habit more than anything. And he most definitely had to be intimidating to survive as a Death Eater in Lord Voldemort's vicious court. And even more after he became a double agent, constantly having to prove himself in the most heinous ways that he'd really rather forget, but was cursed with reliving in his nightmares.

Fortunately, he also had some wondrous dreams to offset the nightmares.

And the star of said dreams was currently disrobing on his bed right in front of his VERY grateful eyes. (The hard as stone phallus that jutted up from his pelvis gave proof to that.)

Hermione kicked off her shoes, letting them hit the floor with a thump. Ginny copied her. Then her hands went to the bottom hem of her jumper and she pulled it up and over her head. Ginny copied her. Their scarlet and gold trimmed black jumpers went flying, joining the robes on the floor. The girls looked at each other, glanced at Snape, who looked enthralled, and then looked back at each other, silently daring the other to continue.

As one, they reached for their Gryffindor neckties, and with deft fingers, they loosened them and pulled them up and over their heads and long hair. Hermione looked at the loop of her tie and then over at the Professor; the veins in his arms now stood out in stark relief as he clenched his hands together to keep them where they were behind his head. She looked back at her tie as an idea formed, smiling wickedly. "Hey, Gin, is it just me or does the Professor look like he could use a little help keeping his hands still?"

Ginny twirled her tie around a finger as she pretended to think for a moment. "I do believe you're right, Mione. He IS looking rather tense."

Severus' brows rose up to near his hairline as he deciphered the girls' intentions. Before he could even voice a protest, it died in his throat as Hermione crawled around him on her hands and knees until she was on his far side. _Merlin, how does she make a relatively shapeless white shirt and a generic black skirt look so incredibly sexy?_

And any further protests he may have thought to speak completely abandoned him as she stopped by his head and traced a finger down the length of his forearm; it felt like sparks shot out of her finger and into his flesh. Hermione's breath caught as she looked at her fingers in surprise for a moment, but then she returned them to the skin of his arm and stroked him again. She bit her lower lip, eyes alight with mischief and an undertone of lust that did funny things to his insides. "Sir, you said we could do whatever we wanted with you… Did that include tying you up?"

_Not exactly what I had in mind, to be perfectly honest, but it's YOU asking so… _He heaved a longsuffering sigh and gazed up at the ceiling as if completely put upon. "I suppose you can tie…"

He didn't get to finish as the girls squealed (_Merlin, I hope they don't do that regularly.) _with delight and grabbed his wrists, tugging them from behind his head._ I'm in trouble, _he thought rather resignedly as he glanced from one maniacally giggling female to the other as they bent over his hands and looped their ties over his wrists. His arms were tugged up and to the sides towards the ornately carved posts at the head of the bed. Of course, they didn't reach; the bed was HUGE after all, so the girls whipped their wands out of their… _Sweet Circe, Hermione keeps her wand in her stocking! That is so bloody hot! _… and deftly lengthened the scarlet and gold striped ties so they could tie his hands to the posts while still giving him an inch or two of slack for comfort's sake.

Severus heaved another sigh when they were finished, just for show. But to be perfectly honest, he was actually even more turned on than before. If it was anyone other than Hermione doing the tying, he'd be putting up a hell of a fuss right now and probably cursing the person almost, but not quite, to their death. (His murdering days were over and hopefully never to be revisited.) But it was her, and he had this nearly uncontrollable urge to please her in whatever way she wanted. (It had made teaching her properly for the last year quite an exercise in self control, to say the least.)

And if that meant being tied, well, he'd survive. It's not like he couldn't get out of the binds in an instant if he was so inclined; his wand was only a few feet away at the end of the bed and easily called to his hand, tied or not. The dominant side of his personality was definitely grumbling, but Severus ignored it.

Now satisfied with her binding job, Hermione glanced over at Severus (she'd decided to throw caution to the wind and call him by his first name in her mind) and found him looking at her rather intensely, but she couldn't quite figure out what his expression actually conveyed. There was lust there, obviously (his blatant erection supported that without question), but there was something else in his midnight eyes that had her heart stuttering in her chest. She'd almost call it… devotion… but that just didn't make sense with his usually acerbic and standoffish personality, so she kind of refused to even contemplate it or hope for it.

Pushing aside her musings over Severus Snape's enigmatic looks, Hermione asked, "Is this all right… Sir?" She purred out the title of respect playfully as she traced her fingers over the open palm of his long fingered hand that made hers look tiny in comparison.

His fingers twitched in reaction, nearly closing over her hand before he remembered himself as he answered in his deep and husky baritone, "It's survivable, I suppose." This time, Hermione was sure the light in his eyes was of the teasing variety. She flashed a grin at him before ducking her head and planting a soft kiss in the palm of his hand.

His sucked in breath was all the encouragement she needed to continue her daring ways.

Hermione started an exploration of the muscles of his arm with her fingers and mouth, laying nibbling kisses on the soft flesh that covered hard steel. She made sure to pay extra attention to the blurred and burnt looking scar of his Dark Mark, just to reassure him that it didn't bother her; she had her own battle scars, after all. Glancing over, she saw Ginny performing a similar exploration of her own with his other arm, but he kept his head turned firmly towards Hermione, watching her with those unfathomable eyes again.

Catching her look, Ginny grinned across his body. "His arms are all kinds of fine, aren't they? I'd almost say he works out or something, but that just doesn't fit the image."

Hermione traced her fingers over the muscles of a bicep that had a line of scars on it made by what looked like werewolf claws. _He didn't get muscles like this from pushing a quill around over parchment, that's for sure. _ She hummed in agreement to Ginny's statement even as more pleasurable tingles travelled up her arm from her fingers. She was starting to get used to the magical energy that seemed to radiate from his skin and into hers wherever she touched, but it certainly had startled her at first. _It must have something to do with how powerful he is, all that magic flowing through his veins, just waiting to be released. What a turn on. _Hermione's hand paused on his bicep as she flicked a raised brow at him. "Is Ginny right? Do you work out?"

Severus snorted in derision. "Hardly. Such pastimes are for the vain. But I do engage in an occasional bout of fencing with Lucius or Draco, and I enjoy swimming in the ocean in my free time."

_Oooooo, sexy. Very much fits the image of an old-fashioned gentleman. I like it. _Hermione kissed his shoulder in approval.

Ginny agreed. "That explains a lot. And I… Wait, did you say Draco? The Ferret fences? Like a gentleman?"

Severus rolled his head the other way and he frowned fiercely at Ginny. "I would appreciate if you didn't call my Godson names, Miss Weasley. And yes, he…"

Ginny's eyes went wide at the same time Hermione's did and the other girl interrupted their man candy. "MALFOY IS YOUR GODSON?!" Ginny all but screeched. "How did we not know this!?"

Severus huffed out an exasperated sigh. "Because you didn't need to know. And…"

"It explains a lot, though," Hermione interjected. "The favouritism, how you protect him, and so on."

Severus basically growled in his throat. "The next person who interrupts me is going to lose ten points from Gryffindor."

The girls snapped their mouths shut.

Severus glanced from one to the other. _Finally. Perhaps it is past time to put some misconceptions to rights. _"Now, as I was saying; yes, Draco is my Godson. And yes I know I've shown him a bit of favouritism in the past. And yes, he knows how to fence like a gentleman. And ride and drive horses. And fly a broom with the best of them. Not to mention manage the estate and family businesses, which he did with only a modicum of assistance from Narcissa while still attending school, and under great pressure from the Dark Lord, while his father was in Azkaban. I realize he's been more than a bit of a prat and a bully, mostly as a product of his biased upbringing, but he's working on getting past that. Even Lucius has come to see that pure-blood fanaticism is simply not a viable course of action."

He paused to take a deep breath and calm himself back down, closing his eyes for a moment. "I suppose what I'm saying is that it wouldn't hurt either of you to at least try and be civil to the boy. He doesn't deserve your scorn. You've obviously demonstrated the ability to look beyond my past as a Death Eater, why can't you do the same with him? He didn't even have a choice about it, and I did." Severus huffed softly. "I did, and how I regret it now." After all that, he kind of deflated, relaxing the tension in his muscles as he looked from one girl to the other to see their reactions.

They were speechless with nearly identical expressions of slack jaws and wide, blinking eyes. Severus found that satisfactory. He focused on Ginny's eyes, curious to know if his words had any impact, for Draco's sake.

_Oh._

_Oh!_

_OH!_

_Now I feel like a right bitch. I don't think I've ever been nice to him. Not once in seven years. Not that he ever showed me that he deserved it. But still, would it have killed me to be the nicer person just once? Maybe… Maybe I won't snub him the next time he walks by. I suppose I could even smile a bit. That couldn't hurt anything, could it? _

Severus turned his face away, pulling out of Ginny's mind. _Well, I guess that's a start. Draco's going to have to do the rest if he wants a chance with her. _

"Professor," Ginny said softly, stroking his arm gently as she stared at it. "I'm sorry. I didn't know any of that, but that's no excuse. You're right about us; we have all treated Draco like rubbish, more so this last year than ever. I can't speak for anyone else, but I promise I'll do better."

"As will I," Hermione said from his other side, also stroking his arm apologetically.

Then the girls sat quietly, thoughts turned inwards, petting his arms pretty much unconsciously.

Severus gave them maybe half a minute to stew before he drawled, "This is lovely and all, but if you two are no longer in the mood, I'd appreciate if you would untie me."

Hermione snapped her head up as she realized that things had definitely gotten off track. She shook it quickly after double checking Ginny's expression. "Oh, no, Sir. We're just getting started. I've dreamt of having you at my mercy for years; there's no way I'm letting you go already." She paused, blushing. "Ummmm, perhaps not always in quite such a… revealing… scenario." She swept her eyes down and back up his body appreciatively, deliberately lingering in the middle both times. "But my fantasies may have strayed in this direction of late," she admitted.

Ginny laughed as Severus squirmed slightly at Hermione's words and his cock twitched visibly. "Oh, methinks the good Professor is enjoying this a little too much," Ginny said with a wicked gleam in her dark amber eyes as she tickled his armpit hair naughtily. "But I do like the idea of having him tied and helpless, so I think continuing our explorations is just the thing. But first, I think we're still a little too overdressed, don't you, Mione?"

Hermione glanced down at herself in mock amazement at how much clothing she was still wearing. "You're right, Gin. It certainly isn't fair that we haven't given our handsome Professor the same show that he gave us. You would like to see more, wouldn't you, Sir?" Hermione said, fingers already on the top button of her white shirt and playing with it teasingly.

Severus inhaled through his nose audibly. And if his eyes had been any other colour, they would have seen his pupils expanding. "Oh, yes, My Own, I most definitely would like to see more." _I've waited what feels like forever to see more. _

Hermione started unbuttoning almost out of necessity, because his voice was once again working its magic on her body temperature. _And the way he calls me 'My Own'... My god, that just makes me melt. _

On the other side of Severus, Ginny was already shrugging out of her shirt. She didn't seem to care that Severus only had his eyes on Hermione. Perhaps she'd already resigned herself to being the supportive third wheel that hopefully got an orgasm or two out of the deal. And considering neither of the girls had gone on a date for months, an orgasm that wasn't self induced would be worth whatever lack of attention she had to bear with. Hermione felt kind of bad for her, but at the same time, she still wasn't quite willing to send her away. _That might even be cruel at this point anyway. _

Hermione quickly caught up to her, leaving her in just her red lace bra on her upper half. And then her hands were on the fastenings of her simple black pleated skirt and it was whisked off her legs and tossed to the floor as well.

Severus thought he might have forgotten to breathe as soon as the shirt came off of Hermione because he couldn't quite seem to catch his breath. She was slender without being skinny, and her torso seemed like an acre of creamy smooth skin that begged to be adored by his lips and tongue. If he wasn't tied up, he probably would have his hands on her already. Her matching red underwear set was the perfect frame for her assets and complimented her golden skin tone in a mouthwatering way.

He was dying to get his hands and mouth on the luscious globes of her breasts that were half exposed by her bra, and the curve of her hips out from her narrow waist just begged for attention. "Merlin, My Own, you are exquisite," he all but gasped out through a throat tight with emotion.

Hermione felt her cheeks flush with pleased heat. Flustered at the compliment from the world's most uncomplimenting man, she tugged on one of her many curls "Thank you, Sir."

"Severus, My Own. Please call me Severus. I don't want to be your 'Sir' anymore," he all but begged, eyes once again locked on hers.

Hermione's cheeks heated further. She looked over at Ginny and they exchanged looks of amazement.

'Holy Merlin!' Ginny mouthed clearly, fanning herself with her hand.

_No kidding! _

Hermione looked back at his hopeful and waiting expression. "All right… Severus." The smile he gifted her with practically stopped her heart, it was so relieved and exuberant. _I honestly didn't know he could smile like that. And… did he get his teeth fixed? I don't remember them being quite so white and even before. Not that he ever smiled enough to show his teeth much, but still…_

Shaking off the random sidetrack of a thought, she ran a finger over the elastic band of her thigh high stocking. "Would you like these off or on… Severus?" She asked because she'd heard that some men preferred the stockings on, liking the look of them, and she wanted to please this man as much as she could in return for the gift of his name and his beautiful smile.

The dark eyed man flicked his gaze downwards and focused on her stockings for a moment before looking back up at her face. "Off, please. I want to see as much of you as you are comfortable showing me."

Hermione was pleased with his answer and moved to roll the stretchy black material off her leg. _I think you'll be seeing ALL of me in no time at all at this rate._

She glanced up when Ginny said, "I think I'll leave mine on. I have a feeling I'm not going to be staying as long as you are, Mione."

"Ginny…"

"She's not wrong," Severus said softly, still looking at Hermione.

Hermione sighed, knowing he was right. She returned to her task of removing her stockings.

Severus turned his head over and, for the first time, gave the girl clad in only royal blue underwear and black stockings an appreciative once over. "Not that you're not absolutely stunning as well, Ginny, and I would like to make you feel good in thanks for being here for your friend, but you are right to assume that I will probably give most of my attention to Hermione and that I will endeavor to keep her with me for as long as possible this afternoon."

Ginny leaned over and kissed his cheek, letting her soft lips linger on his somewhat rougher skin. "It's okay, Sir. I understand. And I wish you both every happiness," she whispered aganst his cheek. "You really are perfect for each other, you know," she said, smiling and sitting back up. "There aren't two more swottier know-it-alls in the entire Wizarding population, I'm sure."

Severus chuckled and Hermione tossed a rolled up stocking at her friend. "Thanks, Gin."

Ginny tossed it back with twice as much force, smirking. "You're welcome, MY OWN."

"Shush." Hermione rolled her eyes at the red headed girl. "I like it."

Ginny rolled her eyes right back. "You would."

"I'm glad, truly, that you like my endearment for you, Hermione," Severus interjected with utmost sincerity. But then he changed his tone and expression. "But you two are getting off track again and I'm STILL tied up, thank you very much. If this was how you focused on your studies, you'd both be T level students." He was teasing, but since he did it with his best annoyed teacher tone, he doubted they'd pick up on it.

Hermione raised an indignant brow, putting her hands on her hips as she knelt on the bed beside him.. "Troll level?! Really? Surely what we've managed so far is worth an Acceptable or Poor at the very least!"

Severus somehow maintained his stern expression even though all he wanted to do was laugh. _She is so predictable._ He raised an imperious brow in return. "Perhaps… if you're extra diligent from now on, I might be convinced to raise your grade to an A."

Hermione huffed, giving him a fairly serious glare. As she moved her eyes over to her friend, Severus let his mouth twitch into a tiny smirk for half a second. _Gotcha, My Own. _Now he was guaranteed that Hermione would do her utmost to drive him insane and he couldn't wait.

"You hear that, Ginny? SEVERUS doesn't think we're doing a good enough job with our portion of the show!"

"We can't have that, now can we?" Ginny's tone was amused. Severus glanced at her and received a wink in return. The minx had caught on to his game, but she was perfectly willing to play along. "Shall we torture him a bit, then?"

Hermione grinned evilly. "Definitely."

Severus finally let his amusement show, smirking deeply. "Do your worst, ladies. I dare you."

Hermione looked at his face and saw the shining eyes and twitching lips and knew she'd been had. It didn't change her determination one bit, though. She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Challenge accepted, Sevi darling." And then she bit the bottom of his lobe none too gently.

His breath caught at the pleasure pain, and then he was attacked on the other side by a second pair of lips and teeth on his collarbone, prompting a faint shiver.

And just like that, there were suddenly four feminine hands all over his chest and stomach while their mouths attacked his neck and shoulders and down to his pecs to tease his nipples and then back up again. His body was in an overload of sensations in no time, but all he could think was, _She called me Sevi darling. And I liked it. _

Severus had always hated the nickname 'Sevi'. He was all right with 'Sev' and had been called such quite often over the course of his life. Lucius still used the abbreviated version of his name on occasion, in fact. (Usually when he was teasing him.) And of course, Draco called him 'Uncle Sev', which sounded fine. But 'Sevi'… It usually made him shudder in revulsion. But coming from Hermione's sweet mouth, and with the added 'darling' on the end, teasing or not, suddenly made the nickname sound almost perfect to him.

He wanted to hear Hermione call him 'Sevi darling' for the rest of his life.

* * *

**A/N: Does this count as another chapter of teasing you? Probably. Hehe. It hadn't been my intention, but I have this terrible habit of writing way more than I intended and I feel like this is a good place to stop before getting into the hot and heavy part of our story. I'm also thinking there's going to be 3 more chapters, but that could easily change to more as my fingers type out way more words that I had no intention or even an inkling of writing when I started. :D **


	4. A Revealing Second Act

**A/N: No more teasing. I present what you've been waiting for. I hope. :D **

* * *

**A Revealing Second Act: **

Hermione was more than a little astonished at her own bravery as she kissed a path down the side of Severus Snape's leanly muscled torso. She was even more astonished that he was letting her. But the faint rumbles of pleasure that escaped him every once in a while, and the frantically beating heart inside his chest that she could feel under her hand told her that Severus was most definitely enjoying her and Ginny's attentions.

She paused with her mouth on the trailing end of one of the multitude of what looked like whip scars that covered his back and curled around his sides. It was nearly joined by another, thicker, burn scar that slashed diagonally across his chest in a similar fashion to her own reminder of Dolohov's curse and the battle at the Department of Mysteries. She glanced up at his face. He was looking down his nose at her from heavily lidded eyes, only a slit of black showing under his gorgeously thick eyelashes. "These scars," she murmured hesitantly, not sure if he'd welcome her curiosity. "You have so many. And most of them look very old. What happened to you?"

Severus clenched his fists and then forced himself to relax again as the girls paused their teasing kisses and waited for him to answer, looking up at him with their nearly matching sets of big brown eyes. _She was bound to ask eventually, so I might as well answer, _he thought resignedly._ Just didn't think the chit would be so bold as to ask so soon. Then again, this IS Hermione Absolutely-Must-Know-It-All Granger, so I don't know why I'm surprised. _He took a deep breath that expanded his chest visibly. "Most of the ones on my back are my father's idea of beating the 'devil's magic' out of me, but there's also a layer or two from Voldemort, who thought reenacting my childhood humiliation to be a fitting punishment on more than one occasion."

"Oh, Severus."

"That's terrible."

He grimaced at the girls' sympathy and shock laced tones. "Yes, well. That's how it is."

Hermione winced at the resignation and finality in his voice. Sensing that the subject of his abusive father was something he really didn't want to delve any further into, she traced the diagonal scar with a gentle finger. "And this?"

"Dolohov's organ frying curse, received at the final battle when he realized I was fighting for the other side. This was just after Voldemort tried to use that blasted snake to kill me and I was still stumbling around, disoriented, waiting for the anti-venom and blood replenishers to kick in. My weak _Protego_ charm was just enough to stop Dolohov from killing me outright, but as you can see, enough to put me out of commission for the rest of the battle. Thank Merlin I keep basically every potion one could possibly need in my robes because I'd have been dead twice over that night otherwise." He shuddered faintly. "Not that I wasn't prepared to die anyway, but I'm grateful to be alive." Severus eyed the pale scar that dissected Hermione's chest in a similar way. "Yours healed well. I'm glad to see that."

Hermione glanced down at her own chest. "I didn't know you knew."

Severus smiled rather grimly. "Who do you think brewed the potions that healed you?"

She blushed, tracing the still reddish scar across his chest with gentle fingers. "I should have realized. Of course it was you. Thank you."

"I couldn't let you die," he said, pouring sincerity into his tone. "You're the reason I fought so hard to live."

She blushed darker, at a loss for words as she stared into his burning eyes.

Ginny decided to rescue her friend by tracing a finger across a thin pale scar that ran across Severus' abs, right bellow his belly button. "What about this?"

Severus tore his attention away from Hermione's fascinating eyes and peered down his body at the scar in question. "Hunh. I almost forgot about that one. That's from Lucius. Many years ago. Our Dark Lord thought a good entertainment for Lucius' wedding celebration would be to see us fence, but with real blades, and we weren't allowed to stop until someone had drawn blood three times on the other."

The girls glanced at each other with wide eyes. "Who won?" Hermione asked.

Severus snorted. "Lucius, of course. He had years more practice than I at that point. I was only seventeen and had just the basics of fencing knowledge. I like to think we're about equal now, though," he added, to save a little face.

"I'd like to see you," Hermione said tentatively. "Fence, that is. I'm sure it's rather exciting." _And very, very hot._

He grinned. "I'm sure that can be arranged." _She wants to spend more time with me! _His grin morphed into a wicked smirk. "I also wouldn't be opposed to doing a little 'fencing' with you, My Own," he said huskily, pointedly glancing down at his 'sword' that wasn't allowing itself to be deterred by their sidetracking conversations. _And we've diverted from the scar conversation, thank Circe. It would take a week to cover them all._

Hermione followed his gaze and blushed bright red at the sight of his towering 'sword'. "Ummmm. Right. I think that can also be arranged." Hermione looked across his body at a silently laughing Ginny, who apparently thought their conversation was hilarious. "What do you think, Gin? Shall we play with his 'foil'?"

Ginny let a laugh escape, snorting inelegantly. "That's no foil, Mione. That's a bloody broadsword."

Hermione barked out a laugh. _From what I've seen, that's accurate enough._ She glanced up at Severus to see his reaction to the proclamation and found his high cheekbones nearly as red as hers had been. He wouldn't meet her eyes. _That's just adorable; he's embarrassed. _

Ginny continued. "But I think we should save the main event for last, don't you?"

_Definitely. _"You're right. We haven't 'tortured' him enough yet." She eyeballed his muscular legs covered in a smattering of dark hairs with interest. "What do you think? Feet?"

Ginny nodded firmly. "Feet."

"Merlin," Severus groaned, both interested and disappointed.

Ginny wiggled her brows at him, her eyes twinkling. Hermione was already running her warm little hands down his thigh, bypassing the part of him that wanted her attention the most with only a teasing glance of her pinky over his pubic hair.

Severus lost his capacity for breathing again as both girls turned away from him and focused on his feet, which gave him a nearly perfect view of their luscious rear ends in their jewel toned satin underwear. _Thankyouthankyouthankyou. I could look at those perfect bottoms all day. It's a crying shame that their uniforms cover them up. _

_On the other hand, maybe it's a good thing. The boys in the school would never learn a single thing if they had a view like that as the girls walked down the hallways. _

His thoughts were derailed as the girls each picked up one of his feet and proceeded to torture him in different ways. Ginny was running just the edge of her fingernails over his foot, making his toes curl or stretch, depending on where she touched. Hermione went for a completely different approach, running the pad of her pointer finger over every inch of his skin, including his wiggling toes. She even compared the length of his big toe to her own fingers and laughed as she realized they were nearly the same length. Hermione's more scientific approach left him smiling indulgently as he did his best to ignore the tingles that shot up his calves and settled in his groin from both of their touches.

And then Hermione changed it up by swinging around and putting his foot right in the middle of her bosom. He nearly choked as his foot was surrounded by soft flesh and a silky red lace bra which made his cock nearly jump right off of his pelvis. And then she petted his long foot like a kitten as she turned her focus to her friend. "Ginny."

"Yeah?"

"I think it's safe to say that the comparisons we made earlier are accurate."

Ginny's face spread into a slow smile as she turned a bit and looked at the foot in her hands, up to his face, and then settled on the tower of whimpering flesh in the middle. "No argument from me." She tickled the arch of his foot. "Looks like I need to find myself a man with feet as nice as these."

Severus couldn't decide whether to start laughing like a lunatic or whimpering like a baby. He settled for a third, more manly option; a low level growl. Of course he couldn't admit that he knew what they were talking about, but he could ask, so he did. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about? And would it behoove you to move your attentions a bit further north? I really don't want to have to admit that you two could make me come just by tickling my feet." _And I'm really not kidding. My balls feel like they're going to explode. They appear to have forgotten that we just got off. I had no idea my feet were that sensitive. _

Their eyes shot to the appendage in question and nearly identical guilty smirks crossed their faces. Severus came very close to option one.

Hermione hugged his manly foot to her chest a little tighter as she contemplated his anything-but-dangly bits and basically ignored his questions. _He really does look rather purple and… throbby. Maybe he's not joking._ She stroked the top of his foot again experimentally and watched his cock twitch in sync. _Whoa. That's impressive. _So she did it again and again, liking the power she had over him. Beside her, Ginny had come to a similar conclusion and wasn't letting up on the arch of his other foot.

Severus only lasted another thirty seconds before he snapped. "GIRLS! DESIST! NOW! Or you will NOT like the consequences!" He was practically shaking in his binds and sweat had popped up all over his body.

Hermione seriously thought about ignoring him and continuing with her experiment, but one look at the thunderous expression on his face changed her mind in an instant. _Maybe another day I'll get to see if I can make him come by caressing his feet. _She dropped his foot back onto the bed like a hot potato and crawled back up towards his middle. Ginny reluctantly did the same, just as loathe to give up their fun.

Hermione put a hand on Severus' narrow hip and then trailed her gaze up the sexy triangle of his chest to his eyes. She smiled tentatively at him in apology and was grateful to see his expression clear and he returned her smile. Sort of. His lip twitched upwards anyway. "Are you sure you want us to continue here? Won't that make the situation even worse?"

Severus shrugged as best as he could, considering his hands were tied higher than his head. "I'll take my chances. At least it's a normal way to go."

The girls giggled, eyeing each other again from across the short expanse of his hips. Hermione inched her hand towards the target, which twitched again at the tease of skin over skin. "Shall we?"

Ginny inched as well. "We shall."

Severus held his breath again.

They reached his cock at the same time, each wrapping a soft hand around the shaft and then gawking at how much was still exposed. "Merlin's beard, it's huge!" Hermione gasped, then added her second hand, which finally covered the head as well. Severus groaned in relieved pleasure. The way their magic interacted sent his cock into near paroxysms of ecstasy within moments.

"Easily the biggest I've ever seen," Ginny said, awestruck. "Maybe even too big to fit properly."

Hermione started an up and down motion with her hands that Ginny followed easily, basically sending Severus' eyes to the back of his head. He groaned again as Hermione licked her lips, shaking her head. "I have to disagree. He looks perfect to me."

_Thank Merlin. And Circe. Hell. Thank the muggle gods too. _Somehow, Severus managed to keep his eyes cracked open so he could watch what they were doing to him, but it was a struggle. His heart paused as well when Hermione took her top hand off and bent over him, her bountiful curls falling downwards over her shoulders and brushing his skin like silken snakes as she kissed the blunt and weeping head. He watched in what felt like slow motion as her lips parted to allow the tip of her pink tongue exit. _Oh Merlin! Is she…? She is! _

Hermione tentatively licked at his tiny slit, gathering up the pre come, and was pleasantly surprised. She hummed as the salty but not unpleasant flavour settled on her tongue. _Loads better than Ron's, which I could barely stomach. _She glanced up at Ginny, who was waiting for the verdict with a raised brow. "It's good."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Let me try."

"Sure." Hermione backed off, but still kept her hands on his base and on his clenching thigh. She watched her best friend lean over, her spare hand keeping her long hair out of the way, and lick at the cock head that they held together. Ginny sat up a bit and licked her lips. "You're right. It's good. Harry tasted like sardines. I don't like sardines."

Hermione wrinkled her nose at her friend. "Who does?"

"Ron? I think he'll eat anything."

The girls giggled again as Severus thought about resorting to option one again as an unfortunate image of the youngest Weasley male sucking off Potter popped into his mind that he was sure the girls hadn't intended to imply but had managed to anyway. _Gak. That one's not going to go away. And I did NOT need to know that about Potter. Nor are Weasley's disgusting eating habits a secret. _

He was fortunately distracted when the girls decided to start licking his entire shaft at the same time from both sides like it was a giant lollipop, small giggles erupting every once in a while like it was a game.

Their lack of seriousness about their business was enough to keep him from getting too excited about having two hot mouths on his cock at the same time, but then their hands started to stray to new territory. His eyes widened as someone cupped his balls and another used a finger to tickle his perineum and arsehole. He had no idea who was doing what, but he was frankly shocked at the second person's boldness. But not disgusted. No, never that. Severus was even more turned on than ever.

And about ten seconds away from shooting a load all the way up the ceiling.

He needed a distraction and he needed one now.

Severus called his wand with a mumbled _Accio _under his breath that the girls didn't notice. It flew into his hand and he pointed it at the ghastly Gryffindor ties in turn, transferring them to the floor in an instant and back to their original length. His wand was dropped and his hands found a place on the delectable bottoms of both girls. Their eyes shot to his face, the bed posts, and then to their own rear ends where his hands rested happily and were waiting for permission to continue. Ginny nodded slightly before returning her attention to his cock. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him for undoing her work, but then she too returned to her 'lollipop' without further protest.

Except, this time, she engulfed the head in her hot mouth and sucked.

Severus groaned yet again and then narrowed his eyes at the side of Hermione's head. _Game on, My Own. _

Severus slid his fingers under the elastic hems of their underwear and then down to their damp heat. Correction. Ginny was damp. Hermione was SOAKED.

And as he sent exploratory fingers along the length of their slits, his beautiful witch gifted him with another little shot of juice as she moaned around his cock. _Merlin's balls, no witch has ever been this wet for me. _Severus felt blessed to the extreme.

Hermione was having a terrible time concentrating on her task of driving Severus mad via cock and ball torture because he was in turn driving her to insanity with his clever fingers that seemed to know all of her trigger spots even better than she did. She'd all but came to a dead halt with his cock in her mouth as he rubbed her clit just right to send her brain into orbit. And she'd nearly choked herself on him when he'd delved a long finger into her and found her g-spot on the first try. When she had the presence of mind to look, she could see that Ginny appeared to be in the same predicament, her mouth and hands hardly moving at all and a look of utter bliss on her face.

_I know exactly how she feels. _

_Oh, god, do that again. That felt amazing. I didn't think I would like that. _Hermione moaned yet again and shivered from head to toe. She gave up trying to suck Severus off and just rested her forehead on his bony hip, hanging on to his cock like an anchor.

Severus was more than pleased with his accomplishments.

The girls had essentially stopped driving him ever closer to orgasm as they chased their own releases. He alternated between circling their clits, diving two fingers into their hot channels, and running a teasing fingertip over their little rosebuds, since at least one of them had made it clear that a little anal play was allowed by demonstrating on him.

There was a constant stream of moans and panting 'yeses, gods, and Merlin's' coming from them that had his chest puffing up with pride and inspired him to double his efforts. He'd never been so glad to be ambidextrous in his life, but his right hand was still the dominant one and Ginny was benefiting from it.

Either that, or she was just more mentally willing to orgasm right away. Severus could tell this because her channel was starting to tighten unmercifully around his fingers. So he added his thumb to her clit as he stroked her spongy g-spot and Ginny came with a stilted scream, before she bit his thigh where her head was resting.

He did his best to prolong her pleasure as long as possible while still paying attention to Hermione, and then brought the pretty redhead down from her high with gentle strokes of his fingers.

When Ginny recovered some of her wits, she pulled away from Severus' hand as she grabbed his wrist. The she brought his hand to her mouth and licked his fingers clean of her juices, purring lightly. Severus blinked at her and then smiled. _I bet anything that she's the one who played with my arse. That girl is a keeper for sure. I hope for Draco's sake that she gives him a chance. _

When Ginny was done, she put Severus' hand on the small of Hermione's back and then she crawled up to his head again and kissed his jaw. "Thank you. That was fabulous," she whispered into his ear. "I'm going now. I don't think she needs me here anymore and I have a feeling you're going to want to be alone for the next part if I'm right about what's about to happen."

Severus nodded as regally as possible, considering the circumstances. "You're welcome, and thank you as well," he whispered back. "And I sincerely hope you're right. All the signs are there."

Ginny smiled beatifically. "I thought so."

She left the bed with a final caress of his bicep and gathered up her clothes into a bundle before quietly going through the door to the potions closet.

Hermione vaguely noted Ginny's absence, but she was really too close to coming to care. Severus seemed to be holding her on the edge of 'almost there' on purpose as far as she could tell.

Or maybe it was just her and she needed more to find that perfect pinnacle of pleasure.

Suddenly making up her mind, Hermione snapped her eyes all the way open and met his with a determined look. "I want you in me. Now."

Severus had just been about to undo the clasp at the back of her bra when she made her declaration. A smile of extreme satisfaction settled on his face and his eyes grew heavy lidded. "Agreed, My Own." The bra came undone and was vanished with the next wave of his fingers. Her lace trimmed satin knickers vanished in the next second.

He took half a second to memorize her gorgeous, pert, hand sized breasts before sweeping his gaze down her torso to the now revealed triangle of nicely trimmed feminine curls that matched her golden brown hair. His hands wrapped nearly all the way around her waist and he guided her to kneel over him. "At whatever pace you're comfortable with, sweetheart," he murmured.

Hermione thought that 'As Fast As Possible' sounded just about right, but when she guided his large head to her entrance, she had to amend that to 'Never Mind. Reasonable Will Have To Do'. _My god, he's big! _That didn't stop her from slowly pushing herself down onto his length, though. The copious amount of slippery juices she'd been leaking helped greatly. _I hope he doesn't mind getting drenched. _

Severus didn't mind at all. In fact, he gloried in the proof that she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. Her channel was so hot, so wet, and so fucking tight, that he was sure he'd found heaven. He watched her face with avid eyes, searching for signs of discomfort, but thankfully finding none. He only saw the determination in the way she bit her bottom lip and the growing glee as she took more and more and more of him in until there was nothing left of him to give. He could feel her sitting directly on his hips, their pubic hairs intertwining lovingly. It was a rare witch, indeed, that could accommodate him so. "Oh, My Own, you really are perfect for me," he groaned out as he held her curvy hips tighter and ground himself up into her, feeling her cervix with his tip.

Hermione cried softly at the completely new sensation and then panted down at him, resting her hands on his chest as she wriggled on him experimentally. "I think, Sevi darling, that it's YOU who are perfect for ME."

He choked out a chuckle as she squeezed him even tighter. "Whatever you say, sweetheart."

Hermione beamed at him and then gasped again as she found a spot that she particularly liked. She leaned further forward and discovered how that felt even better on her clit.

Severus curled his neck and shoulders forward so he could press kisses to her pretty little jaw as she rocked herself on him with increasing enthusiasm. "Perfect," he murmured over and over between each kiss.

Hermione agreed. She'd never felt so good in her entire life and she hadn't even come yet. But she was awfully close. Her magic was tingling through her whole body and she swore she could feel Severus' as well, everywhere they touched. When his mouth came close to hers, she turned her head the last fraction and captured his lips with her own.

Everything paused for a minute as they savoured the intimate contact with rubbing caresses. That didn't last long, though, before his tongue came out and licked her lower lip, asking entrance. She was quick to let him in.

They moaned into each other's mouths as their tongues tangled in an intimate dance that echoed the movements of their hips. Her hands moved further up and into his hair, which was astonishingly soft and silky. She grabbed handfuls of it and kissed him harder as her riotous curls surrounded them, closing out the rest of the world.

Severus's hands travelled up from her hips to her breasts. He circled her nipples with his thumbs and she gasped into his mouth. He pinched them lightly and she moaned. He thrust up harder into her and pinched them a little harder and she cried out, tearing her mouth from his, as her whole body froze in the grip of ecstasy.

As her channel squeezed him in vibrating flutters that stole his capacity to think, Severus finally let go of the grip he'd had on his own impending orgasm and his balls released with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm deep into her depths, drenching them both in hot seed.

The magic in their bodies went haywire as well, filling the room with a golden light as their magical souls merged.

Hermione stared into Severus pitch black eyes and watched them reflect the gold light as she trembled on top of him in an orgasm that seemed to go on and on forever. Not that she was complaining. Not one little bit. It was fantastic. By far the best orgasm she'd ever had. She had no idea what was going on with their magic, though, and honestly didn't care at the moment. The only thought in her brain right now was, _I think I love him. I think I love Severus Snape._

When his balls finally relaxed their grip on his spine, Severus took in a much needed deep breath as all of his muscles turned to jello, and then he smiled like an angel. Raising a faintly trembling hand to her cheek, he rubbed her kiss swollen lips with his thumb as he stared into her eyes that were nearly as black as his own from the dilated pupils. "I love you, Hermione Granger," he rumbled out in a near whisper. "Would you do me the greatest honour of becoming my wife?"

* * *

In the potions classroom, where Ginny had lingered as she slowly reclothed her still pleasantly humming body, she watched the closet with curious anticipation.

When said closet glowed gold from the still cracked open doorway to Snape's bedroom some ten minutes after she had left it that way, she grinned and rose from the desk she'd been sitting on, heading for the door to the hallway.

_I like being right. They ARE soulmates. _

* * *

**A/N: You're welcome. :D **

**Reviews are like chocolate. And I love chocolate. :P **

**One more lemon filled chapter and an epilogue left, I think. And then I'll dive into my Ginny and Draco story that will run simultaneously to this one, time wise. **


	5. The Magical Third Act

**A/N: My apologies for the delay. I got it in my head that I should try and actually finish a story before the end of 2019 so that I could say that I did. So I concentrated all of my attention on one of my short Star Wars stories that was set during the equivalent of a Christmas/New Years Eve type holiday. I did finish it, but it took me till the middle of January to do it. **

**Oops. **

**And then I wrote the 2 chapters for my reward winners, which brought me to a point where I needed a small break. I'm finally back in the grove of writing, and have decided to finish this story and its sequel next, which means no more 2 month gaps between chapters. (Feel free to cheer.)**

**So now I happily present to you...**

* * *

**The Magical Third Act:**

Hermione looked down at the man who was still intimately connected to her, who was giving her an astonishingly accurate interpretation of puppy dog eyes for someone whose favourite expression was a scowl, and essentially screeched out, "WHAT?!"

Severus winced, pleading expression fading into a look of heart-clenching resignation. "You heard me. I won't repeat myself if it offends you that much. I apologize for overstepping."

While she was still frozen in shock from his declaration, proposal, and immediate withdrawal, he picked her up off of him and placed her on the bed beside him. She sat on her legs and stared at the tense muscles of his lean back bisected by the bumps of his spine with wide eyes as he summoned his underclothes to hand. Her mind whirled.

_He loves me? Severus Snape loves me? And wants to marry me? ME? The person who seemed to annoy him the most, with the exception of Harry, for the past eight years? Why?_

_Does it matter?_

_Well, yes._

_But maybe not as much as it's going to hurt if he kicks you out of here for being an idiot. Is 'WHAT?' really the best you could come up with?_

_So sue me. _

_I can't sue myself. _

_Gods, he's going to leave me. Must stop him before he gets up!_

Hermione lunged at his back as he was pulling on his black boxer briefs, hugging her arms around his chest tightly. "NO! Severus, no!" He froze in her hold, but didn't turn his head.

She hooked her chin over his shoulder. "You didn't overstep," she said softly. "I'm not offended. I was just completely surprised, that's all."

Severus inhaled deeply, shoulders and head sagging as relief overtook him. His hands rose, letting go of the material around his calves, and grasped onto her forearms like a lifeline. He closed his eyes for a moment, thankful he hadn't completely ruined everything by being too eager, and then turned to look at her, putting their faces only a breath apart.

She swore she could read the thoughts in his obsidian eyes; his regret for blurting out a marriage proposal out of the blue, and his hope that she'd come to love him as much as he loved her.

_But surely that's crazy?_

_No its not, _Severus thought in reply, as he shuttered his thoughts behind a light Occlumency shield until he could explain.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, eyes searching hers. "I guess I could have done that better, but I wanted to ask you before the scroll showed up."

Hermione's confusion over what she thought she saw in his eyes evaporated for the moment as his words registered. "The what?"

As if it had heard her question, there was a pecking sound at the tiny window high on the wall. They both looked over at it to see the silhouette of an owl against the daylight.

Severus snorted. _Sometimes I hate being right._ _They must have sent the owl through a floo or something to get it here so quickly. It's only been a few minutes. Bloody, overeager, toadies. _"The scroll. From the Ministry of Magic," he patiently explained. He flicked a finger at the window and it opened inwards, letting the small brown owl in. It flew right for them and dropped a scroll tied with a gold ribbon into Severus' naked lap and then found a perch on top of his wardrobe.

Hermione's gaze went from the scroll, to the bird that watched them with avid interest, and then back to the scroll which was now in Severus' elegant hands. "Why is the Ministry sending you a scroll?"

He sighed and kicked off his pants so he could move. _Why am I not surprised that she doesn't know? She's not exactly the simpering, annoying, romance obsessed type. _

Hermione watched with puzzled but appreciative eyes as he stood, flicked down the blankets, and then crawled back up to the head of the bed and settled with his back against the pillows. He patted the bed beside him, and she made quick work of sliding into the spot offered, tucking herself into his side as he pulled the blankets over them for warmth. _How am I so comfortable with him already? Shouldn't this all be terribly awkward? _

But it wasn't. It felt so right to have him wrap an arm around her shoulder and kiss her temple gently. She wrapped her arms around his waist in return, turning more onto her side and sighing in contentment. _This is nice. Really, really nice. Who knew Snape was a cuddler?_

She let the silence drag on for a minute as her new lover contemplated the scroll he'd dropped in his lap, long fingers plucking at the ribbon, but not actually undoing it yet. "Soooooo, are you going to tell my why the Ministry sent you a scroll or should we try twenty questions?" she finally asked, teasing lightly.

He gave her a flicker of a smile, still lost in the wonder that she'd so easily snuggled up to him. He'd honestly expected her to sit stiffly beside him, with a healthy distance between their bodies. That she'd immediately tucked himself to his side like she belonged there had absolutely flabbergasted him. "Sorry again. - Merlin, I'm saying that a lot. - I was just working out where to start."

"That's fair."

Severus' smile grew. He reached over with his free hand and brushed a few curly locks behind her ear for her. "What do you know about magical soulmates?"

Her dark amber eyes widened. "Magical whatnows?"

He chuckled. "That's what I thought. It's not something covered in school, and being a Muggle-born, you wouldn't have heard the tales."

She pushed off his chest a few inches so she could look at his face better. "Tales about what? Soulmates? Many Muggles believe that every person has a perfect soulmate out there for them somewhere."

Severus smirked, tugging on a lock of her hair a little as he wound it around his fingers in fascination. "Those ignorant fools would, wouldn't they?" He rolled his eyes slightly at her look of censure, but then conceded, "While I suppose it is possible that Muggles could find their soulmate, they'd never know for sure because they don't have the magic necessary to actually bind them together. And the odds of finding a soulmate, even in the magical community, are very low, which is why there are tales about them. Every young witch's dream is to find her soulmate and live happily ever after, but about ninety-eight point five percent of them will usually just make do with a finding a good match that they can grow to love. The only people I know who are magical soulmates are Arthur and Molly Weasley, and I've met pretty much every influential Wizard or Witch in Britain."

Hermione settled her cheek against his shoulder again, smiling to know that her favourite surrogate parents were soulmates. "Hunh. It's possible I've heard the girls in the dorms giggling about the topic, but I've always just tuned them out when they started talking about boys and makeup and clothes."

He chuckled. "You would, my swotty bookworm."

Hermione glanced at the bedroom wall space taken up almost entirely by overflowing bookshelves, with the exception of the wardrobe and the one wall that had the door to the potion's storeroom in it. "Something tells me that I'm in good company in that regard."

He kissed her adorable little nose. "You would be right. Now, back to the soulmate thing. When two magical people meet whose magic is perfectly compatible, there are signs."

Although the topic seemed a bit fanciful for someone like Snape, Hermione was finding it fascinating. "What kind of signs?"

"Firstly, an increase in power and abilities when they meet. One's natural abilities would work even better on their soulmate than on anyone else. There would also be an exchange of magic when skin is touching skin. When soulmates consummate their inevitable attraction, their magic will permanently combine and then both will have the innate abilities of the other and their power will increase again to the point where using a wand to focus their magic will be almost unnecessary except for the hardest of spells."

Hermione was seriously impressed. "I can see how everyone would want to find their magical soulmate, then, if they could."

"Yes. A new soulmate bond is so strong and sends out such a ripple of magic that even the Ministry imbeciles will detect it right away, which will prompt the immediate sending of a scroll for signing to finalize the automatic marriage of the couple."

Hermione's eyes flew down to the scroll with the gold ribbon, and just like that, everything he'd been patiently explaining clicked; like the way their magic seemed to interact and the gold glow when they'd climaxed. "Oh my God! We're magical soulmates?!"

"Yes, we are, My Own. If you'd been born knowing what you were, you would have known as soon as you sat in my classroom for the first time and experienced the increase in magic in your veins. It was no coincidence that you mastered your magic so easily. No coincidence that you were the best of your class at everything from transfiguration to wandless and wordless magic, despite being against other students who already came to school with that knowledge if not the actual ability."

She was both flabbergasted and devastated. "So everything I did was a lie, then? If I'd never met you, I'd just be an average witch?" Her lower lip trembled as that horrifying thought set in.

"Oh, no!" Severus gathered her up into his lap, displacing the scroll on the covers, and hugged her tight as tears welled in her eyes. "No, My Own. That's not what I meant at all!" He tenderly kissed the tears off of her cheeks that had escaped her determined blinking. "You were always special. No soulmate bond on the planet could make you as smart as you are or make you so gifted at everything you tried. All I meant was that your magic was a bit stronger than it would have been. I have no doubt that you'd still be the first person to float a feather, or make an advanced potion years before you should have been able to, or get an Outstanding in all of your chosen subjects. Those things are all you, sweetheart. You are brilliant, and you would always have been so. You just got a little extra zing of power to fuel your accomplishments, that's all."

Hermione sniffed not so delicately, wishing for a tissue. "Oh. Thank you, Severus." She looked up at him through her wet lashes and hugged him just a fraction harder than she already had been. "You know, I've heard more compliments from you today than I've heard you give anyone in the entire eight years that I've known you. You're going to give me a swelled head at this rate."

He wrinkled his decidedly large nose at her, doing interesting things to his face. "If anyone's getting a swelled head, it's me."

She raised one of her hands to stroke down the silky long locks of his pitch black hair. "Why's that?"

"Because I heard everything you and Ginny said about me today during class and while you were 'hiding' in the closet," he admitted.

"WHAT?!" she screeched again. "How?!"

Severus grimaced, his ears ringing from the close proximity. "I have very sensitive hearing. And… this is a secret you'll have to promise not to tell anyone, not even Ginny."

She nodded quickly, curious about the 'and'.

"I'm a natural Legilimens. I don't need to use my wand and say a spell to know what people are thinking. I only need to see their eyes."

"Holy cow!"

"I suppose," he chuckled at yet another weird muggle saying. (Who in their right mind would worship a bovine?) "I have to admit that the years you spent pining for Weasley damn near broke me, though. I was subjected to way too many of your fantasies in living colour when you stared blankly ahead instead of concentrating on your studies." He gave a shudder that wasn't entirely fake.

"I'm sorry. Not my wisest moments." She stroked her knuckles down the side of his face in apology, coming to a stop at his jaw. She smiled suddenly. "Now it's my turn to say it. Although… I'm not sure I'm entirely in love with the idea that you know my thoughts."

Severus nuzzled into her hand and kissed her palm. "I can teach you Occlumency for when you want to keep your thoughts private, if you want. I have no doubt you'll pick it up quickly." _Unlike Potter, who couldn't pick up a stick if it landed on his shoe. _

"Oh. That would be nice. I'd like that."

"I thought you would. Also, you can read my thoughts now too, if I don't shield, so we'll be equal. You already have, once."

Hermione blinked with wide eyes. "Really?" she squeaked out. "Oh Merlin, I did! I thought I was deluding myself."

He smiled softly, shaking his head, fingers once again happily getting tangled in her insane hair as he rubbed her back. "You weren't. I imagine, that with practice and our increased power, it might even get to the point that we don't need to look into the eyes to hear each other's thoughts."

"That… sounds kind of fun, actually, to be able to have private conversations without anyone knowing." Hermione snuggled a little closer into his chest, rubbing her cheek on the warm skin of his shoulder, all but purring with contentment at how things had turned out.

Severus tucked a knuckle under her chin, bringing her gaze back up to his, and dropped his shields. _"I want to kiss you again, My Own."_

Hermione's breath caught as she heard the unspoken desire in his eyes. _"Wow. This is quite the power to have. No wonder you always looked like you wanted to strangle the students."_

His mouth quirked up, black eyes sparkling. _"You have no idea. Now, can I kiss you again?"_

_"Oh yes. Please do."_

His head descended, and their eyes fluttered closed as mouths met like the touch of a butterfly to a flower and their magic danced along their nerve endings in shared joy. Hermione grasped a handful of his hair and his nape, tugging him down even closer to her, a hum of pleasure rising from her throat.

Severus couldn't believe just how perfectly they fit together, how perfect she tasted, how she gave every appearance of enjoying their caressing kisses as much as he was. He'd never truly believed that this moment would ever come for him because of his past and their shared history. He'd never believed that he was even remotely handsome enough to catch her eye. Never believed that he deserved to have such pleasure in his life.

But it was happening. And she was kissing him back with the most adorable little kitten sounds.

He wanted to hear her make those sounds for the rest of his life.

Of course, the bloody owl chose that moment to hoot rather demandingly, accompanied by an irritated shake of its wings. Severus seriously contemplated ignoring the beast, but he knew it wouldn't go away until the scroll was either signed or burnt, signifying a legal marriage or divorce. (As if anyone in their right mind would reject a magical soulmate.) So he reluctantly parted ways with her mouth with one final, slightly cheeky, nip to her bottom lip.

Her eyes fluttered open, the expression on her beautiful face one of whimsical dreams. "Why'd you stop?" she murmured, already tugging on his hair, asking for more kisses.

Severus flicked an annoyed glare towards the top of his wardrobe. "Because the owl wants the scroll back and won't leave until we do something with it."

Hermione blinked until her usually very capable brain rebooted. She looked around on the bed until she found the scroll that had rolled away a bit. "Oh! We're already married, aren't we?"

Severus found himself petting her messy hair like she was a cat again because he couldn't seem to help himself. "Essentially, yes. But if you don't want to be, then we can burn the scroll and it will be as if nothing happened. We'd be expected to go our separate ways, though, so the magical bond will fade."

She made a face at that option. "I don't like that idea. Not at all. I want to be with you."

He did a mental happy dance, but gently lifted her chin to make their eyes meet again. _"Even though it will be in the papers tomorrow once the reporters glance through the public records? Even though I'm nineteen years older than you and an ex Death Eater who's done terrible things? Even though I've done absolutely nothing to deserve your affection and loyalty? Even though most of the world will think you've gone mad to have gotten anywhere near me to have initiated a soulbond in the first place?"_

She cupped his jaw in return, fingers stroking over the lines of a face that had seen so much horror and abuse. _"Even then. Because you're a hero, no matter what those ignorant people think. We'd never have won the war if it weren't for you. And I happen to like older men, so your age means nothing. Or everything. You are beautiful to me, both inside and out, so I don't care what others think of us together. And as far as my affection and loyalty are concerned, you earned those when I found out just how much you sacrificed of yourself to be an undercover spy. You have endured so much. Given so much. Protected us all. The whole world should love you like I do." _She paused, a smirk tilting up her lips. _"Okay, maybe not quite as much as I do, I'm claiming your body for mine alone."_

Severus stared at her, completely floored, for a full half minute. And then he groaned before kissing her hard and fast. "Circe, I love you. You're the most amazing girl. My body and heart and soul are yours for as long as you want them."

She kissed the cute little dimple in his chin. "And I am yours. Always." As their bodies took on a golden sheen again from their magic celebrating their vows, she held out a hand while still holding his gaze, and summoned the scroll, vaguely marveling at how easy the magic flowed through her. "Let's sign this so I can have my wicked way with you again, Sevi darling."

His eyes crinkled at the corners in bemused humour as he plucked the scroll out of her hand, waving the ribbon off with the flick of a finger. "I disagree. I believe it is I whose turn it is to have their wicked way with someone."

Hermione felt her core clench at the husky baritone voice that sent her insides into a turmoil of need. "I think you're right."

"Of course I'm right," he said smugly. Severus summoned a quill and a book to use as a writing surface from his bedside table, showing off by floating both at once with a fancy bit of wandless and wordless magic. They unrolled the scroll on the book and read it together.

** _ Certificate of Binding Marriage _ **

** _This certifies that Severus Tobias Prince Snape (Half-blood wizard) and Hermione Jean Granger (Muggle-born witch) were legally married via Magical Soulbond at 1:18pm GMT on July 23rd 1999. _ **

** _Signing below will render the Soulbond unbreakable. _ **

Hermione and Severus looked at each other, nodded once, and then took turns signing.

The room flashed gold again, and then a new line of small print appeared at the bottom of the scroll.

**Thank you. You are now officially married,**

**Department of Records & Information, the British Ministry of Magic.**

Severus fairly hummed with satisfaction as he carefully rolled the scroll back up and held it while Hermione tied the gold ribbon back on. _I can't believe I'm actually married. I don't know if I'll ever believe it. Maybe when we have grandchildren, it will have actually set in. _

_Merlin, I hope Hermione wants children. _

_Later, of course. Best not to push her now. And she'll want to establish her career first. _

The owl swooped down and plucked the scroll out of his hand with dainty talons as soon as Hermione was done with her perfect bow. They watched it fly through the window, Severus closed the pane, and then they looked at each other again.

"Well."

"Indeed."

Hermione shifted on his lap, pressing her thigh against his quickly rising hardness. She traced a finger over his bare chest. He rubbed a thumb over her bottom lip. They both smiled slowly, like the rising of the sun on the horizon.

And then, with a flurry of movement that sent the book and quill flying, and the blankets almost all the way to the floor, she was under him and he was kissing the very breath out of her.

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**Soooooo, what do you guys want? Another chapter of lemony goodness? Or straight to the epilogue and on to the next story? **

**Let me know. Your wish is my command. :D**


	6. A Climactic Fourth Act

**A/N: Well… The people have spoken. It's 10 - 2 in favor of more lemony fun. So here you go! **

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**A Climactic Fourth Act:**

At thirty-nine years old, Severus was just hitting the prime of a powerful wizard's lifespan; where, for the next forty years or so, he would barely age at all.

In contradiction to his age and accomplishments, though, he had roughly the same amount of actual sexual experience as an average Fifth Year. As in, almost none.

His first experience with sex that didn't include his own hand had come from Bellatrix Lestrange. She'd been ordered to 'break in' the new recruit the night he'd taken the Dark Mark at a party at Malfoy Manor. That had included a round or two of Cruciatus, immediately followed by an Imperius that had him helpless on his back with his cock standing straight up in the air while his nerve endings shuddered from head to toe in echoes of the Crucios. Bellatrix had ridden him for at least an hour straight, using him like a toy. When she was too tired to chase her own pleasure anymore, she left him like that.

Severus hadn't been able to move for hours, until one of the house-elves found him in the morning and immediately retrieved Lucius to free him from the spell. The young Malfoy heir had actually been appalled and sympathetic, cementing their tentative friendship that had started when Severus was just a First Year and Lucius a Sixth.

Other than that, he'd had a few quick shags with some Voldemort's pure-blood hussies, who'd followed the handsome wizard around like he was a god, while still in his late teens because it was expected of him. But the experiences had always left him feeling even filthier than the river that ran through Cokeworth, so he'd started Obliviating and then planting false memories in the whores when he was pushed to go have 'fun'.

Planting memories was easy. From his ability as a Legilimens, he had a veritable encyclopedia's worth of knowledge that involved the carnal act of coitus that he knew was supposed to be pleasurable, but he'd never found it so. (People had an appalling habit of thinking about sex whenever they shouldn't, especially his fellow schoolmates.)

During his twenties, his own self-doubt about his looks and his admittedly ridiculous devotion to a girl who'd turned her back on him when he needed her most had kept him celibate.

And then Hermione had come to Hogwarts and any thoughts that may have lurked about maybe getting on with his life and finding himself a wife to carry on the Prince genes had instantly evaporated. His magical soulmate had left him flummoxed and unnerved since the first time she opened her mouth in his class, but he'd always been proud of her accomplishments, even if she and her friends did have a terrible penchant towards giving him a heart attack on at least a yearly basis. He'd also fallen helplessly in love with her when she walked into that Yule ball in a pink dress that made her look so much more grown up than he'd been letting himself think of her being.

He'd wanted to curse the living hell out of Krum for touching her, and the eyeballs out of the heads of every boy who'd looked at her with lust in their slobbering gazes. He'd had to Occlude his own emotions away during that first dance and then he'd taken his leave before he went insane.

The intervening years since as she pinned for, and then got together with, the youngest Weasley menace hadn't been much better. Up until now, he'd honestly never been happier in his life than when she broke up with the orange haired dunderhead.

Now, some twenty plus years since he'd last been intimate with another person, Severus had finally kissed someone for the first time, had a blow job (of sorts) for the first time, and come inside someone who didn't make his skin crawl for the first time.

That it had occurred with him on his back and 'helpless' again might have sent him into a state of panic if it hadn't been for the fact that he'd literally do anything for Hermione and that his libido had taken over his brain. He was fairly confident that his horrific experience with Bellatrix would forever be banished to the depths of his mind now that he had a new memory to associate with the position.

There'd been no pain, no blood from raking fingernails that could pass as talons, no taunting about how ugly and skinny he was and that his cock was his only redeeming feature.

Instead, he'd only been subjected to endless waves of pleasure and their thoughts and words about how nice his various parts were.

Severus would have thought it all to be a dream if it weren't for that fact that he'd never even come close to dreaming something as nice as that.

And, Merlin, now he wanted to have sex with Hermione as often as possible from now until the end of eternity. And he intended to reenact every single thought that had anything to do with lovemaking between a male and a female that he'd accidentally eavesdropped on during the course of his life.

Starting with kissing her from her pretty head to her adorable little toes.

Hermione clung tighter to neck when he pulled back from their passionate exploration of each other's mouths. "Mmmm. Don't stop. Kiss me some more," she begged. Kissing Severus far surpassed all of her previous experiences with the act. Victor's kiss had left her feeling cold despite the obvious skill, and Ron's kisses had been downright sloppy compared to Severus' smooth lips and deliberate tongue.

It almost physically hurt to know that she'd been kissing the wrong person when she could have had this perfection instead for the last three years or so. (Assuming she could seduce Snape into loving her while she was still his student, that is.)

Severus looked down at her, braced on his forearms so he could cup her face and angle their mouths as he wished, and smiled smugly before he placed one more soft kiss on her lips, his hair a curtain of black around their faces. "Trust me, I intend to, my beautiful wife."

"Oh. That's good." She smiled up at him and brushed one side of the silky curtain behind his ear to let in more light so she could see his features better, and then traced her fingers over his kiss swollen, perfect Cupid 's bow of a mouth. "I love your kisses. You're so good at it," she murmured.

Severus' chest literally filled with pride, which had the added benefit of brushing her nipples across his chest. "I'm glad you think so, because you're the first person I've ever kissed," he admitted, blushing and ducking his eyes a bit.

Hermione gawked. She couldn't help it. If her head wasn't already pressed to a pillow, she might even have reared back in shock. "No way!"

He scowled, already regretting the admission. "I do not lie."

"Oh. I wasn't saying you were!" she was quick to reassure, using a finger to smooth out the deep line between his bunched together eyebrows. It didn't last for more than a second. "I'm just astounded because you've given me the best kisses I've ever had, and you're so frickin' sexy. I admit you're not conventionally handsome like a Malfoy, but I like your features much better; they have so much more character. And no one, and I do mean no one, has a better bedroom voice than you do."

That smoothed out his brow as his expression transformed back to the boyish grin tinged with a hint of embarrassment. Hermione adored that look. It made him look almost like a teenager again, if you disregarded the subtle lines of pain and anger permanently etched into his face.

"This, I am very pleased to hear," he rumbled. "I think I would have had to go crawl under a rock and die if you were to say that Weasley was a better kisser."

"Worry not, Sevi Mine," she said with a cheeky grin, finger trailing down his patrician nose and bumping the tip. "So far, everything you've done to me has already outclassed Ron's 'Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am' approach. There's a reason I dumped him, you know. I love him dearly, but as a lover and boyfriend, he leaves a great deal to be desired."

Severus puffed up again, pleased with himself and the new name she'd given him. He liked feeling claimed by her. A lot. "I can guarantee there will be no 'Wham, Bam's' in our bed. Unless…" His voice deepened and the look he gave her would have melted her socks off, if she'd been wearing any. "…that's what you want."

_Oh god. _Hermione literally shivered from the predatory look in his eyes. She squirmed under his body, rubbing herself against him as much as possible, as she wound her arms around his neck again and stared into the bottomless pools of his eyes. _"You can 'Wham, Bam' me anytime, when you put it like that."_

Severus responded by nestling his revitalized length against her hot core and smirking like a pleased tomcat. _"I'm sure I'll take you up on that, sooner than later. But first… I'm going to kiss you again… Everywhere."_

Hermione's lips parted on gasp. _"Oh, yes! Please do!" _She had zero doubt that he'd be just as naturally talented at cunnilingus as he was at kissing.

Catching the thought behind the thought, Severus grinned widely. _"Hold on to your butts!" _And then he dove down and mashed their mouths together again for a moment, burying his hands deeper in her hair, before trailing his lips up and over towards her flushed cheek.

Hermione grabbed handfuls of his long hair and yanked. "Hang on!"

He raised a single brow. "Yes?"

"Did you just admit to watching Muggle movies?"

He sneered playfully. "Those mind-numbing works of pretentious rubbish? Why ever would I subject myself to that?"

Hermione gave him a mock glare. "Maybe because some of them aren't rubbish?"

Severus chuckled, dropping the sneer. "Maybe because. Or maybe because a certain someone who saw a certain movie came back for her Third Year with thoughts of dinosaurs and whether or not she could use magic to recreate them tumbling about in her mind. I gave in to my curiosity and went to see the movie myself. I found myself going to the movie theatre regularly after that." He tugged gently on the fistfuls of hair he still had. "Now, have we used up our quota of distractions yet, or shall I roll off and get comfortable?"

She wrinkled her nose up at him. "Git."

"So I've heard."

She rolled her eyes at his desert dry tone. "Just kiss me."

He waggled his sweeping black eyebrows at her, eyes twinkling. "As you wish, My Own."

Hermione giggled at the blatant reference to one of her favourite movies that came out long before she ever showed up at Hogwarts. She thought it a rather fitting one, too, considering that he already made her feel like a princess, and she was most definitely a new bride.

Severus started at her mouth again and lingered there long enough this time to make sure she was sufficiently mindless before he dared move on. He pressed butterfly kisses to every inch of her face, from her sculpted eyebrows, to her perfect nose that he dearly hoped their children inherited, to her delicate eyelids, to the widow's peak at the top of her smooth forehead. _Merlin, she's so exquisite. So soft. So perfect. _

Hermione smiled through the whisper soft explorations of her face, keeping her eyes closed to focus better on the feelings inspired, content to let him do whatever he wanted. The fact that he'd never kissed anyone before her made her want to give him everything he could possibly desire. Lay the world at his feet, even. What little she'd known of his life was tragic enough, but to add the fact that no had ever loved him enough to kiss him even though he was clearly no virgin was just heartbreaking.

Her smile turned to a squeak as he traveled over to her ear and nibbled on the lobe and shell. Her squeak quickly turned into giggles as his tongue tickled the sensitive tissue. His answering chuckle sent her stomach to fluttering madly and the giggles instantly stopped in favour of a gasp and a tightening of her fingers in his hair.

Severus drank in her reactions eagerly, wanting to learn every possible sensitive spot on her body to memorize for later use.

Hermione writhed under him as he moved on to her neck and the sensitive spot right behind her ear. She wrapped her legs around his and moaned like a wanton when he found a spot lower on her neck that he decided was the perfect place to suck on. And she started begging when one of his hands moved from her hair to her breasts and took turns cupping them lovingly, thumb strumming her nipples in the most delicious way.

Severus almost caved into their combined desire and slipped inside her, but he had a goal in mind that he refused to be distracted from.

Well, not for too long, anyway.

Sucking on her neck, rubbing his length through her wet folds over and over, holding her luscious breasts in his hand, and listening to her moan his name while she dug her blunt fingernails into his back was certainly worth a bit of a sidetrack.

Hermione couldn't believe how fast he had her climbing to a pinnacle again. Was it just the way their magic played along her skin that had the sensations winding her higher and higher? Was he just that good that he could somehow manage to stimulate her clit with the hard length of his cock alone?

And good grief, when had her neck and nipples become direct conduits to her core?

"Please, Sevi. Please. Please. Sev. Sevi. Oh Merlin. Oh gods. Oh fuck. Severus!"

He looked down at her in amazement when she arched her back off the bed, actually lifting him up a little bit, gasping out little mewls of pleasure, all of her limbs clinging to him like Devil's Snare. _Holy shite! I just made her come! Merlin's balls, she sensitive. That certainly makes it easier for me to blow her mind, doesn't it?_

_Circe, I'm a lucky sonofabitch. _

When Hermione pried her eyes open again, she found her new husband looking down at her with the smuggest grin she'd ever seen on a person. She almost rolled her eyes at him, but then decided that he'd earned the right to wear that look. Running caressing hands down the defined muscles of his arms, she gave him back her own version of a smug grin. "Severus Snape, we're never going to leave our bedroom for the rest of our lives if that's how it's going to be between us."

His grin somehow grew and he rocked his pelvis against hers in a not-so-subtle nudge. "I have no problems with this. I have enough galleons accumulating in my vault from my potions patents that we can literally spend the rest of our lives doing nothing but shagging, eating, sleeping, and shagging some more, if that's what you want."

Hermione laughed, not surprised at all that he was well off; he was too smart to be anything but. "I think I like that idea, as long as you add bathing to the list, and we maybe do something resembling a meaningful job for at least a few hours a day so as not to set too terrible an example for our future children."

_YES! _Severus had to quell the urge to leap off her and run around the room like an idiot while cheering, 'She wants kids with me! ME!'

Instead he kept it to a much more dignified pleased smile and a firm, "Done." He kissed her to seal the bargain and then looked down into her flushed and beautiful face again. Taking a deep breath for courage, he threw himself off the proverbial bridge again. "Would you perhaps be interested in telling the Ministry to go hang and instead start a company with me, specializing in experimental potions?"

She blinked, thought it over for about two seconds, and then all but blinded him with her smile. "I'd love to! That sounds like fun." She tugged him down and kissed him to seal that bargain too, and then released him to search his eyes. "But what about your position here at Hogwarts? I was under the impression that you wanted to teach, considering that you came back after the school was rebuilt when you didn't have to."

He all but shuddered in her arms. "Gads, no. I hate teaching those ungrateful dunderheads. I only came back because you did."

"Oh, Severus. You didn't have to. You could have done something you actually liked and asked me out for coffee like a normal person instead of torturing yourself."

"But would you have said yes if you didn't have this year to change your opinion of me?"

Hermione opened her mouth to answer an immediate yes, but then realized that he was right. "Possibly not. Certainly not until after I got over my infatuation with the idea of living happily ever after with Ron, anyway."

"That's what I thought. I know you, My Own, and I knew that if I were ever to have a chance with you, you'd have to make the decision on your own. Before the final battle, I was only ever your annoying potions teacher to you. And after it, I was the pathetic hero who sacrificed his life to atone for one stupid mistake. Neither of those things were something you saw as potential mate material as of a year ago. So all I could do was stay in your radar until you did."

She reached up and caressed the deep lines of sorrow that radiated from the corners of his eyes. "Oh, Severus, you really haven't had the best go of it, have you?"

He shook his head ruefully, catching one of her hands and kissing her knuckles. "Not particularly, no. But I have you now, which makes everything else more than worth it."

She scoffed. "If it makes you feel better to think so."

"It does."

"Then I guess we'll just have to make the next forty years as happy as possible to make up the difference."

His face split into a grin. "I like how you think, My Own."

She snorted. "I have about a hundred essays with red scribbles all over them that say otherwise."

He guffawed, forehead coming down to rest on her own. "I love your mind, My Own. Never forget that, no matter how many red scribbles I put on your things."

She kissed the end of his nose. "I'll do that, Sevi Mine. And for the record, I liked your red scribbles; they made me try even harder. None of the other teachers ever pushed me to be better than what I was like you did."

"That's why I did it."

"I know."

They smiled at each other rather dopily for a minute before he sighed and started pressing kisses to her jaw again. "We've gotten all distracted again, darling, which means I have to start all over," he mumbled between kisses.

She giggled, stroking her fingers down the muscles of his back. "That's all right with me. I rather like having you on top of me."

He huffed against her neck. "Tell that to my forearms. They're not used to doing a half pushup for this long."

She laughed again. "Poor baby. You know you could change your position so you're beside me instead of on top and take some of the pressure off."

He nipped the spot where her shoulder met her neck, inspiring a tiny gasp. "Not a chance. Mini Sev would much rather rub against your satin skin than against the bedding."

"Mini Sev?"

He smirked against her slender shoulder. "Would you rather I said cock?"

She made a sound that could only be described as a gigglesnort as he kissed his way down her arm, lacing his fingers with hers so he could manipulate her arm as necessary to reach all of the interesting spots. "You can call your manhood whatever you want. I just thought that Mini Sev sounded a bit juvenile for someone as serious as you usually are. But then again, I've seen about half a dozen new sides to you today that I never knew existed. I'm starting to think that the pissed off teacher persona was just an act."

Severus kissed her delicate wrist bone, black eyes flicking up to hers filled with humour and buried pain. "Oh, it wasn't an act. Pissed off and depressed is how I've spent most of the last twenty years. It's you who's given me something to be happy about again."

Chest tightening with sorrow for her man, she used her free hand to stroke gentle fingers over his brow and down his cheek even as her other arm tingled from his attentions. "Oh, Severus. I wish I could take away all of the pain I see in your eyes. I wish I'd been born around the same time as you so that I could have given you something to be happy about all this time. I know I would have enjoyed telling off everyone who was mean to you."

He smiled, kissing her palm. "And I would have loved to see you do it," he said smugly as he switched his balancing act to the other side so he could kiss his way up the new arm that had just been presented. "Especially James Potter; how I hated his hypocritical ass."

Hermione used her newly free arm to hug his shoulders as he moved, laughing softly. "I could have punched him out like I did to Draco, when he was being an asshat."

Severus paused in his oral exploration of the tender underside of her elbow to grin up at her rather evilly. "Now that, I would have paid to see. Just like your Potter, most of the school thought my Potter was all that and a bag of crisps." _Including Lily._

He'd ducked his head back down just before he'd finished talking, but Hermione could almost swear that she'd heard the unspoken thought anyway. Or maybe it was just her own mind supplying the most logical conclusion to the sentence.

Either way, both of them preferred to concentrate on what Severus was doing to her over dwelling on his past unrequited love.

So Hermione closed her eyes and rested her head on the pillow again, fingers occasionally stroking his long silky straight hair that felt so different from her own coarser curls, and just let herself enjoy.

She enjoyed the kiss he left on her neck. Adored the tickling path of his tongue on her collarbone. Mumbled words of encouragement through the half hour or so that he spent worshipping her breasts until that magical thread between her nipples and her clit made her come again. Watched him with hazy and satisfied eyes as he kissed a long and torturous path down her torso and towards her center. Giggled at the sudden dip of his tongue into her bellybutton. Moued in temporary disappointment as he bypassed where she wanted him to stop the most and travelled on down her thigh. Muttered threats as he spent a ridiculous amount of time making her shiver and shudder from the attention he paid to her feet. And then, finally, moaned words of praise and obscenities as he showed her just how fast he was at learning her favourite spots between her legs to be licked and kissed and sucked and tongued.

Severus didn't let up on her hub of pleasure until she came for him twice more, drinking in her juices that tasted like what he imagined ambrosia to be, the currents of magic that burst like fireworks between them every time she shattered, and her cries of praise and completion that filled his heart with pride and joy.

And when she finally settled back into the bed bonelessly, he kissed a quick path back up her body until he was cradled between her thighs again, and then pressed his aching length inside her still rhythmically spasming channel. Lacing his fingers with hers, he raised their hands above their heads and kissed her passionately as he rocked into her with slow and steady deliberation.

Hermione didn't have the energy left to actively participate, but she sure as hell enjoyed it as her apparently tireless husband thrust into her for an endless and unknown amount of time. And when he finally found his own climax, he dragged her over again with him from the magical surge of it. Her hands clenched around his, her core exploded tingles through her entire body, and she watched his close-eyed grimace of ecstasy with a feeling of awe that it was her that had made him feel so good. _I swear I'll spend the rest of my life making you happy, Sevi Mine._

Severus gasped and his eyes flew open. "I HEARD that."

She blinked in confusion. "Heard what?"

A slow and brilliant smile crossed his face as he rolled them over so that Hermione could rest on his chest without them losing their intimate connection. He used a hand that faintly trembled from exhaustion to brush her sweaty hair out of her eyes. "I heard your thought, My Own. Without looking in your eyes, I heard your thought."

"Ohhhhh. That's amazing!" She beamed down at him, cupping his face to kiss him in celebration. Then she pulled back and said, "Let's see if we can do it on purpose. Close your eyes."

His eyes practically snapped closed, a smile twitching at his lips.

She almost sighed at how gorgeous he looked like that, with his cheeks flushed from pleasure, his long black lashes resting on his cheekbones, and his skin glistening with perspiration, but didn't want to confuse things. Instead, she thought very clearly, _"I love you, Severus Snape."_

His eyelids flew open again for a moment, and he pulled her down to kiss her almost desperately. And while he was kissing her, with both sets of their eyes now closed, she heard his sexy voice say in her mind:

_"I love you more, Hermione Snape."_

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**A/N: Not exactly the chapter I thought I was going to write when I started, but I like it all the more for it. :D**


	7. And The Curtain Falls

**A/N: Based on how my Severus character developed and the worst review I've ever received, who literally wrote an essay on how bad my story, characterizations, and writing was, (which I took great satisfaction in deleting) I made a few small changes to chapter 1 around 2pm, Mountain Standard Time, on Feb 5th, 2020. I wouldn't say it's necessary to go back and reread it, but you can if you want. :D **

**Thank you to everyone else that supported this story with kudos', favs, follows, and encouraging comments; I write for you guys. Here's some more lemony goodness (or badness, depending on your point of view) to show my appreciation. :D**

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**And The Curtain Falls:**

About five hours after entering Severus' bedroom for the first time, Hermione was woken by the familiar sound of a wand buzzing an alarm.

She groaned as the echoes of a most pleasant dream were chased away like wisps of fog and rubbed her face against her odd feeling pillow that smelled strongly of spicy male and held her hand out blindly to _Accio _the offending stick of wood so she could make the chiming noise stop.

A wand landed in her hand, but the unfamiliar feel of it had her eyes popping open in an instant. She stared with a rather stunned gaze at the ebony wand in her hand as it chimed away. _What in the world?!_

A deep, rumbling chuckle under her ear turned her focus elsewhere.

Hermione's head turned and she was greeted by the sight of a pale, lean, male chest. She blinked and looked further up to see a black stubbled jaw surrounded by long black hair. Using the hand that held the buzzing wand, she pushed off the chest until she could look down on her bedmate.

Severus Snape grinned up at her with sparkling obsidian eyes and plucked his wand from her loose grip. The buzzing stopped as he thought, "_Finite." _Then he set his wand on the bedside table again.

She gawked at him for about three seconds as the entire afternoon of discoveries and brain-sizzling pleasure flooded back into the forefront of her mind. Her core clenched in automatic remembrance, and her cheeks heated. _Oh my god! It wasn't all a dream!_

"No, My Own," he rumbled out in an even sexier version of his voice, husky with sleep, as he cupped the back of her head, burying his fingers in her bird's nest of curls. "This was most definitely not a dream. It was even better."

A smile of wonder settled on her face and lit up the room far more than the floating candles and the sad amount of daylight that angled in through the small window ever could. "It was, wasn't it?" She leaned down and kissed her new husband with heated enthusiasm, ignoring for the moment the fact that her body was starting to demand that she see to other, more necessary, needs.

Severus mumbled an agreement into her kiss before taking control of it and turning it into a languid seduction of her tongue, coaxing and teasing it to play with his own.

As they kissed, Hermione wondered how she could have forgotten, for even a moment, how perfect and real their new relationship was. _"I guess you officially blew my mind, Sevi Mine."_

_"The feeling is mutual, believe me."_

She smiled against his mouth, ending their kiss with one last peck. "As much I'd love to keep doing this, I really need the loo. I'm assuming you have your own?"

He kissed her nose and then glanced towards the door to his sitting room. "Through there and it's the next door to the left."

"Thank you." She shot him a grateful smile and then basically flew off the bed, leaving the warmth of his body and the thick blankets. She had every intention of naughtily streaking, completely starkers, to the bathroom and back, but two steps out in the cold air, and she came to a dead stop and whirled back around. "Merlin, it's freezing down here! Robe. Robe. I need a robe!" She looked all over the parts of the floor that she could see, but couldn't find her robe.

Severus couldn't help but silently laugh at her abrupt about-face despite how much he sympathized with her as she wrapped her arms around slender-but-oh-so-curvy form and shivered. He found her robe on the other side of the bed and called it to his hand, cast a warming charm on it, and then tossed it to her. "Here, love."

She caught it gratefully and tucked her arms into the sleeves as fast as humanly possible. "Ooooooo. Thank you!" She hugged her toasty warm robe closed and beamed at him and then spun again, a cheerful, "Be right back!" floating on the air behind her as she made a quick exit.

After watching until she was out of sight through the doorway, Severus reclined back on his pillow, linking his hands behind his head, and just grinned up at the ceiling like a fool for a few minutes. _I am a very, very lucky man. _

Soon enough, his own bladder made itself known, and he sighed in resignation that he had to abandon their love nest too. From long experience, he _Accioed _a warm dressing gown from his wardrobe before he tossed off the blankets and rose to his feet, grateful for the rugs he'd put over the cold stone floor long ago. Slipping his arms into the patiently hovering robe, Severus then tied the robe closed and made for the bathroom.

He arrived just as Hermione was emerging and they exchanged suddenly shy smiles as they switched places.

"Your turn?"

"My turn." He stopped with his hand on the doorway and turned back around to find her still watching him with a fond smile. It filled his chest with a quiet joy. Adding air to his lungs as well, he tentatively asked, "Would you, perchance, be interested in sharing a shower with me?"

Hermione beamed at him. "I would. As much as I love your scent, I don't think I want to go the feast smelling like we just spent the afternoon shagging like bunnies."

"No?" he laughed.

"No."

"Pity. I suppose it's too Neanderthal-like to want you to smell like my essence so all of the other males know that you've been claimed, isn't it?"

"Just a bit."

"And I assume you're going to cover up my mark of possession too?"

Hermione's hand flew up to the reddish bruise on her neck and she giggled. "Unfortunately. My dress has a high collar."

He sighed mournfully. "Oh well. There's always tomorrow."

"Yes." Hermione glanced around the sitting room, looking for a clock and not seeing one on first glance. "Hey. What time is it anyway?"

He winced slightly, knowing she wasn't going to like the answer. "My wand was set for five thirty, which means the party starts in about fifteen minutes."

Her melted chocolate eyes widened impossibly and her hands fluttered. "Oh gods! I have to get ready!"

She moved to spin away, but Severus stepped forward and snagged her around the waist, turning her back into his chest. He cupped her cheek. "Relax. We can be a bit late. You know I like to make dramatic entrances."

She sagged a little in his arms as the sudden adrenaline left her. She laughed ruefully. "Do I ever."

He tugged on a lock of her hair gently, a cheeky grin playing with his mouth. "Well. This is going to be my best dramatic entrance yet, with you on my arm."

Her eyebrows rose and she shook her head at him fondly. "Do you really think we should break it to them so soon?"

He shrugged slightly. "Better tonight than have everyone you care about see it in the morning papers instead."

"True."

"Good." He kissed her quickly and then led her into the relatively large bathroom in front of him. "Hop in the shower, and I'll join you in a minute."

Hermione gave him a bemused look as he set the clouded glass enclosed shower to running for her and shrugged out of her robe, letting it fall to the grey tiled floor.

Severus turned around, saw her standing there in all her naked glory, voluminous hair tumbling around her shoulders and halfway down her back, and nearly suggested that they skip the evening's much anticipated celebrations and just stay in his rooms for their own private party. But Minerva would undoubtedly come looking for him and all but drag him up to the Great Hall by his ear like she'd done on numerous occasions in the past when he was feeling unsociable. So he held his tongue. Just.

Instead, he gave her a blatant up and down onceover, letting every ounce of appreciation and longing he felt for her show on his face. "You are exquisite, My Own. Absolutely exquisite."

Hermione blushed. She couldn't help it; the look in his eyes was setting her on fire. "Thanks." She stepped forward and brushed her hands over the quilted cotton covering his chest, eyes drawn to the V of pale skin showing between the soft fleecy lapels of his dressing gown. Heeding the urge that said he needed a little worshiping as well, she kissed the center of his chest in the natural indent between his pectorals. Glancing up at him through her lashes, she bit her bottom lip and then said, "I like your robe. You look very debonair and shaggable in it."

Severus groaned as his libido shot through the proverbial roof. His arms came around her and he found himself grasping her perfect bottom and grinding himself against her stomach. "Merlin, Hermione. Do you want to get to the feast anytime in the near future or not?"

She smirked like a vixen. "If we're going to be late anyway…" She let the sentence hang on the air.

His eyes flashed with midnight fire, and he lifted her up via her arse. She met him halfway, hands moving up to hold his head as they kissed almost frantically.

Eventually tearing his mouth from hers, Severus spun, all but dumped her in the steaming shower stall, and backed off. "You are too fucking tempting, witch."

She grinned and slid the shower door closed in his face.

He muttered curses as he tore his dressing gown off and stomped over to the toilet to empty his bladder, snarling at the raging erection that was going to make the process less than easy.

In the shower, Hermione was giggling, hearing the vast majority of Severus' curses in her mind, fairly certain he was sending them to her on purpose. _Most of the time, I'm very happy that I'm a girl._

_"I will never disagree with that," _Severus thought to her, between curses. _"I'm glad you're a girl, too."_

She laughed.

While he was dealing with nature, she started washing herself quickly with the spicy smelling liquid soap she found on a ledge on the wall. _I'm going to smell like Severus, no matter what I do. And I don't think I care. _

_Merlin, this stuff is amazing! _She just wanted to roll around in the scent like a cat. And the slippery stuff felt wonderful on her skin, tingling slightly as the magic infused soap cleansed her pores. _I bet he makes it himself. _

_"I do. I can make you your own soap that suits your natural scent if you want."_

_"Ooooooo. Yes, please!"_

_"Consider it done."_

_"You're the best."_

_"Thank you."_

She was reaching for another bottle, identical except for the word, 'shampoo' scrawled on the side, when the shower door slid open and Tall, Dark, and Horny stepped in. "I wouldn't use that if I were you," he said as he crowded up against her and plucked the clear bottle from her hand.

She looked up at him in askance as hot water poured over them and he put it back on the ledge. "Why not?"

"Because it's designed for my fine hair. It took me way too many years to perfect the formula, but I finally found the right one that was immune to the fumes of all of the potions I work on and actually left my hair looking like hair instead of greasy strings. I have a feeling, that on your curly hair, you'd end up looking like a tumbleweed."

She snorted in agreement. "Most likely. My hair has enough volume, thank you."

Severus fingered a wet lock that now reached her waist with the weight of water forcing it straight. "I like your hair. It's like you, rebellious and brilliant."

"Awwww." She wrapped her arms around his neck and rubbed against him, enjoying the feeling of having her breasts squashed up against his chest. "Thank you. But I thought you hated when Harry, Ron, and I broke the rules?"

He cupped her bottom and picked her up with a smirk, secretly exalting when she automatically wrapped her legs around his waist. "As a professor, and as someone who cared dearly whether or not you got yourself hurt, yes, that's true. But as someone who also broke as many rules as possible while in school, I like knowing that we're similar."

An imagined picture of a delinquent teenage Snape, skulking through the dark halls of Hogwarts while up to misdeeds popped into her mind, sending heat through her core. "Why am I not surprised that you were a bad boy?" Her sultry laugh was cut off as he stepped forward and pressed her up against the wall, hands kneading the soft flesh of her arse. "Oh!"

He ground himself against her, sliding his length along her warm folds, and bending to kiss the spot behind her ear that made her shiver every time. "And why am I not surprised that the thought of my being bad turns you on?"

The husky words whispered in her ear were literally the last thing she needed to make her ready for him, and he knew it.

Severus groaned as he felt a slippery heat coat his cock. "Merlin, woman, I wasn't even this horny when I was fourteen. You'll drive me mad."

She gasped and clung harder to his neck and waist as he lifted her little higher and effortlessly found her entrance, surging inside. "And I've never been this horny ever, so I think we're even," she panted as he set a fast and demanding pace, their wet bodies making rhythmical slapping sounds.

Severus grinned through gritted his teeth as her channel drenched him even more and her fingernails raked his back demandingly. He shifted a bit, bracing his legs better, pushed his chest harder into hers, and slapped a hand against the wet tile, which allowed him to thrust up even harder. "I think. That it's the…" he gave up trying to vocalize anything other than an occasional grunt that would make a caveman proud, and switched to just thinking his thoughts again. _"I think it's the magic. Our soulbond is exchanging magic all the time, which is keeping our nerves on edge."_

_"Or… It's the simple fact that you are one sexy beast and every time I look at you I want to jump you, and you're picking up on that," _she countered with, moaning with delight as his teeth gently locked on her neck again and he sucked. Hard.

_"Or that. I admit I've wanted to jump you since Christmas of your Fourth year. You looked so fucking beautiful and grown up in that pink dress. I have literal years worth of fantasies saved up about you."_

Hermione's mouth stilled on his stubbled jaw, where she'd been kissing a path towards his mouth. _"Normally… that would just be flat out disgusting and stalkerish. I was only fifteen! But… now that I know about magical soulmates, and knowing that you knew I was yours all these years, I'm actually going to give you credit for your restraint. I can guarantee that if I'd known back when I was fifteen, I would have probably attacked you after class. I was so desperate to be loved back then."_

Severus was inspired to speed up his pace and finish the journey of their mouths towards each other, plastering his lips to hers with a groan of surrender _"Fuck. I don't know if I would have been able to resist you. And then I'd be in Azkaban for initiating a soulbond with a minor."_

She kissed him back just as desperately. _"And that would have been a tragedy. Perhaps it was best that I didn't know and spent a few years fixated on Ron."_

_"Best, yes. But good for my poor, whimpering heart? Not so much. Until recently, I honestly thought that I was going to have to wait for Weasley to kill himself playing Quidditch or something before I would ever get a chance with you."_

She tore her mouth from his. "Severus! That's not very nice!"

His black eyes glittered amidst the drenched strands of his hair and his hips stilled. "No. It's not," he growled. "But that was my reality. And I've spent a great deal of my life being 'not very nice', so you'll just have to live with that side of me." His expression softened, filling with regret at his outburst. "That is, if you can? I promise to try and be 'nice' as much as possible, but old habits die hard, and I doubt I'll ever be entirely civilized."

She melted against him, wishing that she'd never scolded him and just laughed it off. Pushing his hair off his face and behind his big and adorable ears that were decidedly prominent with his hair slicked to his skull, she kissed him again. _"Of course I can live with your wicked side. It's part of what makes you so attractive, as you already pointed out. I think I'd be disappointed if you turned into a model citizen."_

He smiled in relief into her kiss and resumed his thrusting, slowly to start, to match their loving kiss. _"That's good to hear. Now, what's it going to take to distract you enough to make you come sooner than later? Shagging against a wall is all well and good, but it's not the easiest position to maintain on a slippery tile floor."_

She laughed as she nibbled on his bottom lip and he sped up a bit. _ "You could try talking dirty to me in that voice of yours. Show me a little of your bad side."_

_"Fuck. You asked for it." _

Severus sped up again, back to his previous pounding. Then he planted his mouth by her ear and whispered, "I want you to come for me. I want to feel your hot little cunt squeezing the spunk out of my cock. I want to fuck you until you can't walk straight. I want to watch you swallow my cock down your tight little throat until there's nothing left to take. I want to fuck your breasts and cover them in my seed. I want to see you ripen with a child that I planted in you. I want to take your sweet little ass and make it mine until you scream and squirt your juice all over us. I want…"

"Fuuuuuuuuuuck! Severus!"

His words stopped abruptly as Hermione cried his name and tensed into a quivering frame of muscles over bone. Her channel clamped down on him unmercifully and started to flutter. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I fucking love you, My Own!" he cried back as her orgasm dragged his own out of him, flooding her insides with his seed.

Hermione collapsed, boneless in his hold, forehead resting on his heaving chest. _"Love you more, Sevi Mine," _she thought back, too breathless to speak. _"And I'm holding you to all of those things you just said."_

He chuckled weakly and performed a semi-controlled collapse to the floor of the shower, where she ended up in his lap and his back was against the wall. When he could breathe properly again, he kissed her forehead in a long, lingering kiss and hugged her tight.

_"We should probably get up and get ready," _he thought after a good five minutes of happy snuggling had occurred under the waterfall of warm water.

_"We should."_

He tipped her chin up and kissed her softly, which turned into an extended expression of their love via mouth to mouth communication.

It was Hermione who eventually pulled away and dragged herself up to her feet. "Right. Getting ready now." She stepped out of the shower as he rose as well, and turned back, sighing in pleasure at how sexy he looked, all wet like that. "Meet me at the stairs to the Entry Hall in twenty minutes."

Severus smiled like a little boy who'd just been given an entire basket of candy. "I will." He flicked a finger at her and she was magically dry from head to toe, her hair mercifully behaving from his spell, and drying into glossy curls.

She beamed, said, "Thanks, love!" and closed the shower door.

Severus sighed like a besotted idiot, shook himself like a dog to inspire himself back into action, and then reached for the shampoo bottle.

* * *

Hermione sped through the process of making herself pretty in a dorm room that she shared with Ginny, Parvati, and another seventh year called Shira. The room bore the scattered remnants of the other girls' war with their own beauty regimes, with articles of clothing strewn everywhere. Then she moved into the attached bathroom and found even more signs of rushed preparations in the form of makeup and hair supplies on every available flat surface.

She went to the section of drawers in the large vanity that where 'hers' and started opening drawers.

In the top drawer, she found some pretty, pink crystal flower barrettes to hold the sides of her hair back from her face. The rest of her curls, she let fall over her bare shoulders and down her naked back.

In the second drawer she saw her stash of potions, and almost slammed the drawer closed before a thought had her snatching up a vial from the back and gulping it down. _Thank goodness I still had one contraceptive potion left over from my Ron-shagging days. Severus seemed rather excited about the idea of kids, but I'm not ready to start a family yet. _

Moving on, she opened her last drawer and found her pathetic supply of makeup. She applied a faint smear of pink eyeshadow, swiped on a bit of mascara, dusted her cheeks with a hint of blush, and then dabbed some shimmery gloss to her lips.

"Good enough," she said to her reflection. Her reflection nodded back with a wink.

Snorting at it, Hermione turned to leave and caught sight of her reflection again in the full length mirror on the back of the door. She paused and studied it, looking for any obvious flaws and finding none.

Her hair and face was as good as they got. Her dress was held up by a strip of fabric around her neck that had a built in gold filigree choker necklace. From the choker, her dress veed downwards, just barely covering her breasts and scar while leaving her shoulders and upper back bare, except for her hair, which offered a peep show as she moved. The rose pink satin covered in a layer of black lace hugged her curves to her hips and then flowed out into a sweeping skirt that would twirl with her as she danced. And on her feet, she wore low heeled, strappy black sandals that left much of her feet bare and showed off her pink nail polish.

Her dress had originally been Gryffindor red with gold lace, but after Severus had said he'd loved her pink dress from years ago, she'd changed the colours. Her shoes had undergone a colour change as well.

_I hope he likes it,_ she thought before she rushed out of the room.

* * *

Severus did.

In fact, Severus was in awe as the goddess who was his wife walked down the stairs to meet him. _Merlin, she's beautiful. So very, very beautiful. _

Hermione could hardly believe the man waiting for her.

He'd changed his usual clothes for something decidedly more spectacular and it made her heart beat frantically in her chest with appreciation.

Instead of being buttoned in from head to thighs in severe black, and covered in multiple layers of dress shirt, waistcoat, frockcoat, trousers, and billowing black robe, Severus had left the robe and waistcoat off entirely and found himself a hint of colour and freedom.

Starting at the top, she swept her gaze downwards.

His silken hair flowed down his back in a black waterfall to his shoulder blades, pulled back from the temples in a similar fashion to hers, but she had a feeling his was held back a simple elastic instead of shiny barrettes. His white dress shirt had been left open at the throat and was tucked into his usual belted trousers, showing off his slim musculature in a very mouthwatering way. He was still wearing one of his many-buttoned brocade frockcoats, but he'd left it open, and the patterned fabric was actually stitched in bright Slytherin green instead of the usual shiny black, and the buttons were emerald green as well.

He looked like a cross between a pirate, 18th century royalty, and a rebellious schoolboy.

She wanted to jump on him again.

They smiled like fools at each other as she came to a stop on the last step, leaving them almost of equal height.

"You look amazing," she breathed. "Green suits you."

"You look even more amazing," he husked, holding out his elbow for her to take. "And green bloody well better suit me. I am a Slytherin, after all."

She smirked, wrapping her hands around his arm, and they turned towards the closed doors of the Great Hall, which were holding back a quiet roar of voices. "And don't I know it."

They walked slowly to their nearby destination, eyes only looking at each other. When they came to the doors, they stopped and both took a deep breath.

"Are you ready for this, My Own?" he asked, determinedly quelling his own fear at being so on display and open to ridicule for his actions with Hermione.

Hermione tilted up her chin in a very Gryffindor way and nodded. "As I'll ever be."

Severus waved a hand at the doors and they opened to reveal a magically expanded Great Hall, decorated in festive lights and summer flowers, to accommodate a dance floor and tables for everyone that been invited to celebrate the first ever Leaving Feast of two Years at once. Everyone who had survived the war and had previously attended Hogwarts as a student had been invited (which was the vast majority of Wizarding Great Britain), and from the looks of it, almost all of them had accepted the invitation.

As Hermione and Severus stepped into the five times bigger than normal Hall, a hush started at their end and quickly took over the entire room. Severus squeezed the hand that was clutching his arm in a death grip as they halted again, feeling the weight of hundreds of shocked gazes. _"No matter what happens, knowing that we're together is enough to get me through the inevitable inquisition."_

She exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and looked back up at him, seeing the love in his eyes. She smiled. _"Seconded, Sevi Mine."_

They bravely walked on.

* * *

**A/N: Okidokey. You're probably expecting me to write another chapter in this one, but I'm not going to. Hehe. **

**What I am going to do is start Part 2 of what is now going to be a 4 part series, and you'll get reactions from our other important players in their own stories, along with an eventual epilogue for the whole series at the end of Part 4. **

**Next up, we have Ginny and Draco's story, 'A Comparable Status'. You can expect the first chapter of that to be posted in 3 or 4 days. (Real life willing.) After that, because I feel bad about bashing poor Ron and Harry so much in this story, I'm giving them Happy Ever Afters as well. Ron's story will be, 'A Comparable Whimsy', and Harry's will be, 'A Comparable Guilt'. I'm not saying who I'm pairing them with yet, because I want it to be a surprise, but you're free to guess. :P **


	8. Author's Note

**To my treasured readers!**

**Just thought you might be interested to know that the next book in this series has been started and is now available for your perusal. Just click on my name at the top of the page to get to a list of my stories to find it! **

**Enjoy!**

**TheLoneRebel**


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